[RESOLVED] Better processing of passed variables

jkurrle

I wrote the following code to process all parameters passed on the URL:

//Retrieve all GET parameters
$paired_array=explode("&",$_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']);
foreach($paired_array as $paired_item)
  {
  $pairs=explode("=",$paired_item);
  $$pairs[0]=$pairs[1];
  //for troubleshooting, uncomment the line below to list out all GET parameters
  //echo "GET parameter \"$pairs[0]\" has a value of \"$pairs[1]\"<br />";
  }

I know there is an easier way to retrieve all GET and POST parameters, but for the life of me I can't remember it. Can someone refresh my memory for me? Thanks!

NogDog

Since $GET and $POST already have all the GET and POST data from the current HTTP request (and $_REQUEST has them all, too), I'm afraid I don't understand why you want to bother with the query string?

bradgrafelman

[man]extract/man.

Except by doing so, you're basically re-introducing the same security risks that register_globals got shunned out of the community for causing.

A better question is why would you want to reference $foo rather than $GET['foo'], since the latter of the two a) contains the same data with no need for duplication, and b) is more descriptive (when looking at the code later, it's harder to tell where $foo comes from as compared to $GET['foo']).

jkurrle

It's mainly for troubleshooting purposes. When debugging, I need to see what variables are properly being passed to the script, to validate that they are there and that they have the right values.

So, all the $GET[] or $REQUEST[] requests can actually be processed as a single array? If so, how do I access the array as a whole?

bradgrafelman

jkurrle wrote:
It's mainly for troubleshooting purposes. When debugging, I need to see what variables are properly being passed to the script, to validate that they are there and that they have the right values.

[man]print_r/man

jkurrle wrote:
If so, how do I access the array as a whole?

Er.. not sure what you're asking? How do you access the array $_GET?

NogDog

If you want to see all the GET parameters passed to the script via the URL query string:

echo "<pre>" . print_r($_GET, true) . "</pre>\n";

Same for $_POST, $REQUEST, $COOKIE, $_SESSION.

Or, a quick way to see everything in the current scope:

echo "<pre>" . print_r($GLOBALS, true) . "</pre>\n";

jkurrle

Got it.

foreach ($_REQUEST as $key=>$item)
  echo "$key has a value of $item <br />";

When I tried to do a print_r($_REQUEST), all it gave me back was "Array", so the above code is more what I need.

bradgrafelman

jkurrle;10952808 wrote:
When I tried to do a print_r($_REQUEST), all it gave me back was "Array", so the above code is more what I need.

Are you sure about that? Sounds like you did print() instead of print_r().

EDIT: Unless, of course, you did it when there were no external variables, in which case print_r() would correctly output something like:

[pre]Array
(
)[/pre]

jkurrle

Didn't catch your post earlier, NogDog. Thanks!

Shrike

You might also want to read about [MAN]parse_str[/MAN].

jkurrle

You got me, Brad. Those darned underscores apparently mean something... ;-)