[RESOLVED] Silly error probably - Incorrectly comparing strings?

_sh

In my script, I have two variables that hold numerics - I simply need to compare the two values (that have already been trimmed for whitespace) and let the script proceed is true...

My if statement looks like this...

if (!$TheSessionUserLoggedIn['MemberID'] == $ThePhotoOwnerMemberID) {
   (do the action...)
}

In summary, if the two values ARE NOT EQUAL, run the code in the middle...right?

Yet for some reason, with the test scenario I have, its validating incorrectly? I've echo'd out the value of the two variables (in my most recent example, the two distinct values were '1' and '12') and they ARE different, and yet it doesn't run the code within the IF statement?

Am I being silly here? Should I go to bed and look again tomorrow morning?

I'd greatly appreciate your help!

Installer

Your code is comparing the negation of the first string with the second string. Try this:

if (!($TheSessionUserLoggedIn['MemberID'] == $ThePhotoOwnerMemberID)) { 
   (do the action...) 
}

...although it seems you should get the same result if the strings are different.

...:

// ... 
// ...
// ...

geez.

bradgrafelman

Or, more simply:

if ($TheSessionUserLoggedIn['MemberID'] != $ThePhotoOwnerMemberID) {
   (do the action...)
}

More information on the different comparison operators here: [man]operators.comparison[/man].

_sh

I've actually tried your example Brad and get exactly the same result - the code to run still isn't executed with values '1' and '12'.

Any ideas why not? This is very bizarre, I just can't work it out!!

laserlight

Convince yourself that you made an error elsewhere by running this script:

<?php
$a = '1';
$b = '12';

if ($a != $b) {
    echo 'working!';
} else {
    echo 'not working :(';
}

_sh

Thanks for your help guys - I haven't a clue what I was doing wrong but its working fine today....I've had a few strange incidents such as this where I'm updating code within a file, it seems to be more common with DB writes - things don't appear to be working, yet the next day everything is fine!?

Does PHP have some sort of cache lag for instructions or something similar? I'm with Dreamhost...who aren't the fastests at the best of times anyway...!

Could you do me a favour and let me know how fast this page renders compared to other hosts that you access?

www.a-hall.com

Thanks!

bradgrafelman

Could it be your own browser caching it (perhaps as instructed by Dreamhost's servers)? If you notice a page not updating, try doing a "hard refresh" by pressing Control+F5 (on a Windows computer, that is). You can also try adding a random query string (e.g. '?123') to the current page's URL to try and trick your browser into thinking that it's an entirely different page that you're accessing.

_sh

Hi Brad,

Thanks for your reply, its definitely not client-side style cache as example bits of code that I insert do appear - its rather odd and I'll keep an eye on things to see if it reoccurs and test further.

Really appreciate your help regarding the initial issue, still haven't a clue, perhaps it was just a little bit too late...hehe