[RESOLVED] if array is empty

jweisberg

I have a form with a number of text boxes and I'm trying to alert the user that at least one of the text boxes are required. I've created an array:

$choices = array('textbox1','textbox2','textbox3','textbox4','textbox5','textbox6','textbox7','textbox8');
if (empty($choices)) 
{
    echo '<div class="error_message">Attention! You must enter a quantity for one of the options above. </div>';
    exit();
}

Unfortunately, it's not working. Can anyone please point me in the right direction as far as what is going wrong here?

scrupul0us

how are you submitting the data, post or get?

based on that you should check:

$GET['textbox1'] or $GET['textbox2']... etc

$POST['textbox1'] or $POST['textbox2']... etc

to see if those values contain data

based on your sample you've assigned data to the array $choices, so it will never be empty

jweisberg

The form submits the data via post.

I'm still confused... how does one check if multiple textboxes are null?

bradgrafelman

So you're saying that the strings in the $choices array are actually names of form elements that you're trying to check?

If so, you're missing a few steps. For one, you're not even referencing the $_POST array at all, which is where all POST'ed data will be. See this manual page for more information on working with external data: [man]variables.external[/man].

You could do something like:

foreach($choices as $field) {
    if(empty($_POST[$field])) {
        // empty field
    }
}

Also note that [man]empty/man returns true for the string '0' as well.

jweisberg

Now we're getting somewhere, however it is returning the "error_message" when at least one of the fields is filled out. The form should require at least one text box to be completed, not all of them.

jweisberg

It doesn't have to be an array... I basically have a number of text fields on an html form that are posted to a php script.

If none of the group of text fields are filled out, then I want to echo an error message. If one or more of the fields are completed, then no error should be returned.

I've also tried the following, to no avail:
if(!$_POST) exit;

$textbox1 = $_POST['textbox1'];
$textbox2 = $_POST['textbox2'];
    $textbox3 = $_POST['textbox3'];
    $textbox4 = $_POST['textbox4'];
    $textbox5 = $_POST['textbox5'];
    $textbox6 = $_POST['textbox6'];
    $textbox7 = $_POST['textbox7'];
    $textbox8 = $_POST['textbox8'];

if (($textbox1 == '') || ($textbox2 == '') || ($textbox3 == '') || ($textbox4 == '') || ($textbox5 == '') || ($textbox6 == '') || ($textbox7 == '') || ($textbox8 == ''))
{echo '<div class="error_message">Attention! You must enter a quantity for one of the options above.</div>';
exit();
}

Pikachu2000

jweisberg;10945263 wrote:
It doesn't have to be an array... I basically have a number of text fields on an html form that are posted to a php script.

If none of the group of text fields are filled out, then I want to echo an error message. If one or more of the fields are completed, then no error should be returned.

I've also tried the following, to no avail:
if(!$_POST) exit;
$textbox1 = $_POST['textbox1'];
$textbox2 = $_POST['textbox2'];
    $textbox3 = $_POST['textbox3'];
    $textbox4 = $_POST['textbox4'];
    $textbox5 = $_POST['textbox5'];
    $textbox6 = $_POST['textbox6'];
    $textbox7 = $_POST['textbox7'];
    $textbox8 = $_POST['textbox8'];
if (($textbox1 == '') || ($textbox2 == '') || ($textbox3 == '') || ($textbox4 == '') || ($textbox5 == '') || ($textbox6 == '') || ($textbox7 == '') || ($textbox8 == ''))
{echo '<div class="error_message">Attention! You must enter a quantity for one of the options above.</div>';
exit();
}

The way you have that written, if any of them are empty, the error is triggered. If you read it out as "if textbox 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 or 7 or 8 is empty, echo the error", you can see what is happening there. If you change the "OR" operators ( || ) to "AND" ( && ) operators, it should work.

jweisberg

I figured that out last night that I would have to change || to &&. Still, it generated a parse error. Nevertheless, after many hours hacking away at it, I figured it out. Here's the solution that worked (for anyone who has had the same issue):

$values = array('textbox1','textbox2','textbox3','textbox4','textbox5','textbox6','textbox7','textbox8');

if (strlen($values[$textbox1]) == 0 && strlen($values[$textbox2]) == 0 && strlen($values[$textbox3]) == 0 && strlen($values[$textbox4]) == 0 && strlen($values[$textbox5]) == 0 && strlen($values[$textbox6]) == 0 && strlen($values[$textbox7]) == 0 && strlen($values[$textbox8]) == 0 &&)
{
echo '<div class="error_message">
Attention! You must enter a quantity for one of the options above.
</div>';
exit();
}