[RESOLVED] Sessions and Visit Counter

[Dang]

Hi,

I am working a my way through a tutorial and can't quite figure this out myself...

Code:
<?php

// initialize a session
session_start();

// increment a session counter
$_SESSION['counter']++;

// print value
echo "You have viewed this page " . $_SESSION['counter'] . " times";

?>

Error:

Notice: Undefined index: counter in C:\Program Files\EasyPHP 2.0b1\www\index.php on line 8
You have viewed this page 1 times

Notice I get the error, but it ALSO gives me the result. If I refresh the page or revisit it I get the result (incremented by 1) and NO ERROR MESSAGE.

I'm kind of thinking it is my error setting in PHP.INI but would like to see if there is another way around it.

Any help, would....help! 🙂

Thank you

[bradgrafelman]

The error is not in a configuration setting but in the code itself (rather poor tutorial if you ask me).

If this is the first time the user has visited the page, $_SESSION['counter'] won't exist, yet your code attempts to increment its value as if it does. As such, I would recommend you rewrite the increment line like so:

$_SESSION['counter'] = (!isset($_SESSION['counter']) ? 1 : $_SESSION['counter'] + 1);

In my code snippet, I used the ternary operator, which basically can be broken into an if/else statement:

if(!isset($_SESSION['counter'])) {
    $_SESSION['counter'] = 1;
} else {
    $_SESSION['counter'] = $_SESSION['counter'] + 1;
}

Obviously, the ternary syntax saves you some typing for these simple if/else statements.

[Dang]

Thank you very much for the reply, I will play with it and see where it leads me.

Also, I am sorry for posting in the wrong area originally.