Question

Dudes,

is there a more concise way to write the statement below? If I don’t check if an array key exists I get a PHP warning. However, the below is a bit too, ehm, wordy.

Thanks!

$display_flag = false;
if (array_key_exists('display_flag',$pref_array) { 
    $display_flag = $pref_array['display_flag']; 
}

Answer 1

The way you have it is fine, as you should validate if the value actually exists, but you could also do a ternary op:

$display_flag = (isset($pref_array['display_flag'])) ? (bool) $pref_array['display_flag'] : false;

I typecast the contents of display_flag to bool if it is set, so you are ensured a boolean value in either case.

Also you could (but I don’t recommend it), squelch the warning with the @:

$display_flag = @$pref_array['display_flag'];