[RESOLVED] Shorter way to check fields if empty?

Ryan_Sanders

I have about 10+ fields that are entered into a form... I want to make sure that none of them are empty.

Is there a shorter way in checking this?

The method I use is asking ONE by ONE if $variable is equal to ""... and I have to go through all of them.

Is there some way of checking all of them at once?

etully

You could write something like this:

$empty_fields = array();
$field_list = array("name","address","city","state","zip","phone","email");
foreach ($field_list as $field) {
if ($_POST[$field]=="") { $empty_fields[] = $field; }
}
if (count($empty_fields)) { echo "you left " . implode(", ",$empty_fields) . " empty"; exit(); }

But honestly, this is barely an optimization. It's not any faster (you still have 10 "if" statements.) And your version (10 individual "if" statements), is probably a lot easier to read. The example above might make sense if you had 50+ fields but for 10 fields, I think your current technique is probably the best way.

Ryan_Sanders

Ok I used yours and it works great.

I want to break down your coding though because I am still novice IMO to a lot of PHP.. and there are things I need to learn and understand... and some of the stuff you wrote is stuff I don't know.

$empty_fields = array();

Thats the first line.. I never use arrays. So when you are setting $empty_fields to array(); ... what exactly does that do? Just shows that its nothing?

Then you have
$field_list = array('test', 'test2', test3');
foreach ($field_list as $field) {

I understand that part.. You are setting arrays for $field_list... like $field_list[1] would be test2. And I understand foreach.

Now this part:
if ($_POST[$field]=="") { $empty_fields[] = $field; }

When you use $empty_fields[] = $field
Does that really make $empty_fields[] --> $empty_fields[$field] or does it make it just $field??

And last:
if (count($empty_fields)) {
Basically.. you are counting and if there is anything posted to $empty_fields.. then that means there was a field empty. Or if count is true or equal to 1 or more.. then there was a field empty.

Is that abotu right?

coldwerturkey

Ryan Sanders;10908213 wrote:
I wonder if I could do a big if statement?

if ($field1 == "" || $field2 == "" || $field3 == "" || $field4 == "" || etc) {
echo "Please fill in all fields.";
}

yeah you can. i personally think empty() looks nicer in the code

if (empty($field1) || empty($field2) || etc) {
echo "Please fill in all fields.";
}

etully

Well, of the three solutions posed so far, I think the two best are your first one and my first one. The big "if" statement that you just proposed doesn't tell the user which field they left blank. Yes it would work... it'll work just fine... but the other two are better. And yours is easier to read.

if ($field1=="") { print "You left field 1 blank"; $blank = 1; }
if ($field2=="") { print "You left field 2 blank"; $blank = 1; }
if ($field3=="") { print "You left field 3 blank"; $blank = 1; }
if ($field4=="") { print "You left field 4 blank"; $blank = 1; }
if ($blank==1) { exit(); }

If someone has to take over maintenance of your code, you can't make it much more easy to read than that.

Ryan_Sanders

Ok I edited my post up there while you guys responded again.

etully

Ryan Sanders;10908213 wrote:
$empty_fields = array();

Thats the first line.. I never use arrays. So when you are setting $empty_fields to array(); ... what exactly does that do? Just shows that its nothing?

This prepares the array for later use. It's just setting up some work space that I'm going to use later.

Ryan Sanders;10908213 wrote:
Then you have
$field_list = array('test', 'test2', test3');
foreach ($field_list as $field) {

I understand that part.. You are setting arrays for $field_list... like $field_list[1] would be test2. And I understand foreach.

Now this part:
if ($_POST[$field]=="") { $empty_fields[] = $field; }

When you use $empty_fields[] = $field
Does that really make $empty_fields[] --> $empty_fields[$field] or does it make it just $field??

remember that $empty_fields is the work space that I prepared earlier? Now I'm going to actually write something there.

$field is the name of whichever field I happen to be checking at the moment. So let's say it's our second time through the foreach loop. On our 2nd time through, $field is the the 2nd field in the list ("test2"). So I'm checking to see if:

$_POST['test2'] is blank.

if it is blank, then I am taking $field and adding it to the $empty_fields array.

So if the user leaves three fields blank, then when the foreach loop is finished, that array ($empty_fields) will have three values in it... the names of the 3 fields that they left blank.

Ryan Sanders;10908213 wrote:
And last:
if (count($empty_fields)) {
Basically.. you are counting and if there is anything posted to $empty_fields.. then that means there was a field empty. Or if count is true or equal to 1 or more.. then there was a field empty.

Is that abotu right?

Exactly. count() tells you the number of items in the array. If the user was a good little user, then count() will be zero and they can move right along. If count() has a value, then it was one or more, and they get the warning message.

Ryan_Sanders

Thank you so much.

That helped a ton.

I'm wasn't too worried about listing which fields the person left empty, but I like your way much better because it leaves less script (although runs through the same amount of ifs)... and I have the option to either list which fields were left blank or not.

Thanks!

Weedpacket

Incidentally, if "empty" is defined as being an empty string (reasonable for forms)....

$nonempty_fields = array_filter($_POST, 'strlen');
$empty_fields = array_diff_key($_POST, $nonempty_fields);

The keys of $empty_fields are then of course the names of form fields that only contained empty strings when they were submitted.

Doesn't work if any of the fields are arrays, though....