new user: php contact form

[ontheroof]

i slightly modified a script for a php contact form (http://www.easyphpcontactform.com/). most things seem okay, but once you submit a message, the script prints the 1st and 3rd character of the email address used (so "[e-mail]" becomes "p a "). there don't seem to be any error messages, and i can't figure out what would cause it to do that. link is here:

http://www.ojoblanco.com/contact/index.php

and the code:

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

/* Email address where the messages should be delivered */
$to = '[e-mail]';

/* From email address, in case your server prohibits sending emails from addresses other than those of your 
own domain (e.g. [e-mail]). If this is used then all email messages from your contact form will appear 
from this address instead of actual sender. */
$from = '';

/* This will be appended to the subject of contact form message */
$subject_prefix = 'Website:';

/* Empty/Invalid fields will be highlighted in this color */
$field_error_color = '#FF0000';

/* Thank you message to be displayed after the form is submitted. Can include HTML tags. Write your message 
between <!-- Start message --> and <!-- End message --> */
$thank_you_message = <<<EOD
<!-- Start message -->
<p>Thank You!</p>
<!-- End message -->
EOD;

/* URL to be redirected to after the form is submitted. If this is specified, then the above message will 
not be shown and user will be redirected to this page after the form is submitted */
/* Example: $thank_you_url = 'http://www.yourwebsite.com/thank_you.html'; */

$thank_you_url = '';

/*******************************************************************************
 *	Do not change anything below, unless of course you know very well 
 *	what you are doing :)
*******************************************************************************/

$message = array('Message','message',NULL,NULL);
$email = array('Email','email',NULL,NULL,NULL);
$code = array('Code','captcha_code',NULL,NULL,NULL);

$error_message = '';

if (!isset($_POST['submit'])) {

  showForm();

} else { //form submitted

  $error = 0;

  if(!empty($_POST['message'])) {
  	$message[2] = clean_var($_POST['message']);
  	if (function_exists('htmlspecialchars')) $message[2] = htmlspecialchars($message[2], ENT_QUOTES);
  }
  else {
    $error = 1;
    $message[3] = 'color:#FF0000;';
  }    

  if(!empty($_POST['email'])) {
  	$email[2] = clean_var($_POST['email']);
  	if (!ereg("^([a-zA-Z0-9_\.-]+)@((\[[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.)|(([a-zA-Z0-9\-]+\.)+))([a-zA-Z]{2,4}|[0-9]{1,3})(\]?)$", $email[2])) {
  	  $error = 1;
  	  $email[3] = 'color:#FF0000;';
  	  $email[4] = '<strong><span style="color:#FF0000;">Invalid email</span></strong>';
	  }
  }
  else {
    $error = 1;
    $email[3] = 'color:#FF0000;';
  }

  if(empty($_POST['captcha_code'])) {
    $error = 1;
    $code[3] = 'color:#FF0000;';
  } else {
  	include_once "securimage.php";
		$securimage = new Securimage();
    $valid = $securimage->check($_POST['captcha_code']);

if(!$valid) {
  $error = 1;
  $code[3] = 'color:#FF0000;';   
  $code[4] = '<strong><span style="color:#FF0000;">Incorrect code</span></strong>';
}
  }

  if ($error == 1) {
    $error_message = '';

showForm();

  } else {

if (function_exists('htmlspecialchars_decode')) $message[2] = htmlspecialchars_decode($message[2], ENT_QUOTES);  	

$message = "$email[2]\r\n\r\nMessage:\r\n$message[2]\r\n";

if (!$from) $from_value = $email[2];
else $from_value = $from;

$headers = "From: $from_value" . "\r\n" .
"Reply-To: $email[2]";

mail($to, $subject_prefix, $message, $headers);

if (!$thank_you_url) {

  echo $GLOBALS['thank_you_message'];
	showForm();
  }
  else {
    showForm();
  }

  }

} //else submitted

function showForm()
{
global $email, $message, $code;	
echo $GLOBALS['error_message'];  

echo <<<EOD
<form method="post" class="contactForm">

<p><label for="{$message[1]}" style="{$message[3]};">{$message[0]}</label> <textarea name="{$message[1]}">{$message[2]}</textarea></p>

<p><label for="{$email[1]}" style="{$email[3]};">{$email[0]}</label> <input type="text" name="{$email[1]}" value="{$email[2]}" /> {$email[4]}</p>

<p><label for="{$code[1]}" style="{$code[3]};">{$code[0]}</label> <input type="text" name="{$code[1]}" size="10" maxlength="5" /> <img id="captcha" src="securimage_show.php" alt="CAPTCHA Image" /> {$code[4]}</p>

<p style="clear:both;">Enter the text in the image above. Text is not case sensitive. <a href="#" onclick="document.getElementById('captcha').src = 'securimage_show.php?' + Math.random(); return false">Click here if you cannot recognize the code.</a></p>
<p><input class="submit" type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit" /></p>

</form>
EOD;
}
function clean_var($variable) {
    $variable = strip_tags(stripslashes(trim(rtrim($variable))));
  return $variable;
}

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

any help is most appreciated

[NogDog]

Welcome to the forum. In the future, please be sure to make use of this forum's [noparse]

...

[/noparse] bbcode tags around your PHP code samples, as it makes them much easier to read. I went ahead and added them to your post.

[NogDog]

Presumably the problem is that somewhere the array $email gets overwritten with a string value, so something like $email[1] is then pointing to the 2nd character of that string instead of the array element with index 1. I don't see where that would be happening in the code your provided, though.

[ontheroof]

Thanks for the quick reply and the introduction! I looked on the site for "how to post code" but didn't see anything in the help or FAQ. Thanks for letting me know.

parts of the string $message are being overwritten by $email, but oddly they are not even the same part. I am quite new to php and only got here by deleting and moving things around, which is i suppose why it doesn't work so well now. i've compared the original to this, but can't see why it would behave that way...