[RESOLVED] Website form: Input data as integer?

Rivet

I've done quite a bit of research on this without any real success; perhaps it's not knowing what search terms to use, or I'm just completely out in left field <grin>; wouldn't be the first time!
Win 7, XAMPP, PHP 5.3, and remote server for comparong localhost to real world results, remote server also using PHP 5.3.n.

For now, I'm limiting my query to PHP/HTML code only; no java, no java-script, etc..

How does one create an input statement (e.g." <input type=" t" name=" " length="1" maxlength="1" value=5> 1 Digit only "
within a PHP page?
I am Using " <!DOCTYPE html> " for html code if that makes any difference. I do not however have HTML 5 knowledge so haven't yet done much more than a little research.

I've tried the various input types and not yet succeeded in having the variable be anything but a string or a float.

Solutions, leads, URLs, et al are all acceptable.

TIA,

Rivet`😕

bradgrafelman

All POST'ed data is treated as string data. Always.

That said, there are functions like [man]intval/man (or just casting to (int)) that allow you to convert a string to an integer. Additionally, there are functions like [man]is_numeric/man and [man]ctype_digit/man that will tell you whether a string looks like it could be directly converted to an integer/number/etc.

EDIT: Also, another question I should ask... does it matter whether or not you have a string or an integer? For most cases in PHP (a loosely-typed language), it does not. Example:

$var = "1";
echo '$var is of type: ' . gettype($var) . "\n";

echo '1 + $var = ' . ( 1 + $var ) . "\n";

The output will show you that PHP is able to understand what you mean by performing mathematical operations on strings. This isn't always desired, of course - try giving $var a value of "2pac".

Rivet

[bradgrafelman;11031773]All POST'ed data is treated as string data. Always.]

Thanks; that's what I needed to know most, I think. I'm getting there <grin>!

[That said, there are functions like [man]intval/man (or just casting to (int)) that allow you to convert a string to an integer. Additionally, there are functions like [man]is_numeric/man and [man]ctype_digit/man that will tell you whether a string looks like it could be directly converted to an integer/number/etc.
]

Thanks; I'll look into those functions; ctype is new to me. is_int(...) is what I've been using to see whether the passed input data was integer or not.

EDIT: Also, another question I should ask... does it matter whether or not you have a string or an integer? For most cases in PHP (a loosely-typed language), it does not. Example:

No, not really. It just seemed like it'd be a convenience and save a little checking of input code maybe.

$var = "1";
echo '$var is of type: ' . gettype($var) . "\n";

echo '1 + $var = ' . ( 1 + $var ) . "\n";

The output will show you that PHP is able to understand what you mean by performing mathematical operations on strings. This isn't always desired, of course - try giving $var a value of "2pac".

Yes, I'm aware. 2pac returns false; been playing with something very similar.

Thanks much!

Rivet`🙂

bradgrafelman

Rivet;11031775 wrote:
is_int(...) is what I've been using to see whether the passed input data was integer or not.

I hope not, because that will always return false for any POST'ed string data (because 'string' != 'int'). [man]is_numeric/man, however, will tell you whether the string data looks like it could be directly converted to numeric value (e.g. float or int).

Rivet;11031775 wrote:
Yes, I'm aware. 2pac returns false

Not at all; this:

$var = "2pac"; 
echo '$var is of type: ' . gettype($var) . "\n"; 

echo '1 + $var = ' . ( 1 + $var ) . "\n";

will produce the following output:

$var is of type: string
1 + $var = 3

since b"2pac" == 2[/b] .

Rivet

bradgrafelman;11031777 wrote:
I hope not, because that will always return false for any POST'ed string data (because 'string' != 'int'). [man]is_numeric/man, however, will tell you whether the string data looks like it could be directly converted to numeric value (e.g. float or int).

Not at all; this:
$var = "2pac"; 
echo '$var is of type: ' . gettype($var) . "\n"; 

echo '1 + $var = ' . ( 1 + $var ) . "\n"; 
will produce the following output:
$var is of type: string
1 + $var = 3
since b"2pac" == 2[/b] .

:eek: Owwww, everytime I think I see daylight it gets dark again! lol, guess that's called paying my dues.

I think I might have said what I did about "2pac" because I wrote it that way; hung my my own petard again! And of course, you're absolutely right. Lots of stuff starting to sink in now - thanks!

Rivet`