Searching for strings

[Suntin]

I'm kinda new to php and still trying to get my head round some of the functions and syntax.
The code I'm working on right now has 2 problems which I just can't seem to get passed, if you have any pointers I'd be very grateful.

1. in_array()
[INDENT]
$form_array = $_POST;
if(in_array("hello", $form_array)||in_array("goodbye", $form_array)){
[INDENT]echo( "hello goodbye");[/INDENT]
}
[/INDENT]

result:
Warning: in_array() [function.in-array]: Wrong datatype for second argument in /usr/home/bob/www/htdocs/application/hello.php on line 68

2. RegEXP (I always hated these, but this one is copy & paste from several sources on the web...)

[INDENT]
if(!ereg("0-9a-z@0-9a-z\.[a-z]", $form_array["email"])){
[INDENT]echo("Invalid email");[/INDENT]
}
else{
[INDENT]echo("Invalid email");[/INDENT]
} [/INDENT]

result:
both valid addresses and gibberish are rejected.

[NogDog]

I'd suggest you start by validating that you really have any data:

echo "<pre>POST:\n";
print_r($_POST);
echo "\nform_array:\n";
print_r($form_array);
echo "</pre>';

As far as email validation goes, I'd recommend this function: http://iamcal.com/publish/articles/php/parsing_email/ (see bottom of page for the actual function if you don't want to read the entire article)

[Suntin]

I know there is data,

it gets written to the test page twice:

1.
if(@$POST){
echo("post var found<br />");
$form_array = $POST;
print_r($form_array);

result: Array ( [text] => some text [email] => [e-mail] )

2.
<form method="POST" action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>">
Freeform:<input type="text" name="text" value="<?php echo @$form_array['text']; ?>">
Email:<input type="text" name="email" value="<?php echo @$form_array['email']; ?>">
<input type="submit">
</form>

result: the information is written back into the form fields.

[Rodney_H_]

Not sure if this will help you, but you may want to take a look at the isset() function.

For example:

<?php
// if the form was POSTED'ed
if(isset($_POST['submit']))
{
	if(isset($_POST['hello']) && isset($_POST['goodbye']))
	{
		echo 'hello/goodbye';
	}
	elseif(isset($_POST['hello']))
	{
		echo 'hello';
	}
	elseif(isset($_POST['goodbye']))
	{
		echo 'goodbye';
	}
	else
	{
		echo 'what are you doing?';
	}
}
?>
<form action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>" method="post">
<p><input type="checkbox" name="hello" value="1" /> Hello</p>
<p><input type="checkbox" name="goodbye" value="1" /> Goodbye</p>
<p><input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit" /></p>

As far as the in_array() function, here is a simple example that might help you (if it is not too simple):

<?php
$sixties_bands = array('Stones', 'The Who', 'Led Zeppelin', 'Jefferson Airplane', 'The Mothers');

$band = 'The Mothers';

if(in_array($band, $sixties_bands))
{
	echo '&quot;'.$band.'&quot; was a band in the 1960s....';
}
?>