Checking for blank variables

WinterDragon

Ah, just wondering if there is a more concise way of checking for blank variables that are passed via a form... soo lets say (just an example) I have the following field names that are passed.

name
password
confirm password
email

ALright, simple enough, now whats the easiest way of checking to see if any of those are blank? Currently I am doing a crappy if statement on all of them..


if(!$name || !$password || !$confirm_password || !$email) {
    echo "Uh, not all filled out.<br>";
}

soooo I know there should be a better way... Any suggestions?

jazz_snob

No better way. Alternative to check if value is present: if(!isset($_POST['name'])){ //blah }

Weedpacket

Or [man]empty[/man].

In fact, any of isset($POST['name']), empty($POST['name']) or array_key_exists('name', $POST) is better, since they don't assume (as your code does) that the variables exist. (Okay, the last one assumes the $POST array itself exists.)

jazz_snob

Weedpacket wrote:
Or [man]empty[/man].

In fact, any of isset($POST['name']), empty($POST['name']) or array_key_exists('name', $POST) is better, since they don't assume (as your code does) that the variables exist. (Okay, the last one assumes the $POST array itself exists.)

You are right (as always). To merely code if($name) is the lazy sot's way. ( jazz_snob goes to fridge for another cool one :queasy: ). Looks like there isn't a more consise way, unless maybe you write a little function that basically checks that for you:

// you might want to also have it strip/add slashes depending on get_magic_quotes_gpc
// and probably just look in $_REQUEST so you don't have to write
// a separate func for $_GET variables
function get_param($var) {
   if( isset($_POST[$var])){
     //fixed following line
     return $_POST[$var];
   }
   return FALSE;
}

samudasu

And one other thing is don't rely on isset if you want to see if a variable submitted from a form has a value. A blank submitted form field will evaluate to true with isset. Maybe use something along the lines of this to make sure the field has a value other than blank.

if (isset($_POST['field']) && trim($_POST['field']) != "") {
    print a message here
}

Weedpacket

jazz_snob wrote:
You are right (as always). To merely code if($name) is the lazy sot's way.

Not quite; if a form variable is allowed to take the value '0', then empty() would be inappropriate (if $_POST['number'] contained the string "0", then it would count as empty). And as samudasu pointed out, a variable that contains the empty string is also set (and empty). That's why there are two functions 🙂 You can have a variable that is and nonempty, or a variable that is set and empty, or an unset variable that is empty. What you can't have is a nonempty variable that's not set 🙂

But all up, you should check that a variable exists before trying to examine its value.

Installer

Some charts that can be very helpful.