[RESOLVED] setting operators as vars to be executed

[cgraz]

I'm trying to check a string using <, >, ==, etc operators. I have a variable $var[1] that will equal "lt" to check for <. "gt" to check for >, "gte" to check for >=, "e" to check for ==, and so forth. What I'd like to do is use a switch statement to determine which operator to use, load it into a variable, then rather than saying

if($this < $that)

I can say

if($this $action $that) where $action equals < (for example)

My code is below. When I add in $action, I get an unexpected T_VARIABLE. Maybe someone can help me out with this, or help me with a beter way to do this?

switch($var[1])
{
	case "lt":
		$action = '<';
		break;
	case "lte":
		$action = "<=";
		break;
	case "gt":
		$action = ">";
		break;
	case "gte":
		$action = '>=';
		break;
	case "e":
		$action = "==";
		break;
}

if( strlen($this->method[$val["name"]]) $action $var[0] )
{
	// Check is okay
}
else
{
	$this->setError($error);
}

BTW action is always set properly.

[bradgrafelman]

You'd have to use the [man]eval/man function which takes a string and evaluates it as if it were PHP code. Here's my best guess:

EDIT: Here's the working version:

if( eval('return (strlen($this->method[$val["name"]]) ' . $action . ' $var[0]);') == TRUE) {
// statement is true
} else {
// obviously it isnt true
}

EDIT2: By the way, if this works, I'll humbly accept moderatorship as thanks 😉

[cgraz]

Thanks Brad. That worked great!!!

eval() was the first thing I tried after seeing I was getting an error, but I was using eval() strictly around action and never tried putting it around the entire statement. Thanks!

If I could give moderatorship, it'd be yours 😉