Question

function test(){
$embedmode = 'normal';
if ( ( $embedmode != '' ) && ( $embedmode != 'normal' || $embedmode != 'popup' || $embedmode != 'popup' ) )
    return "<p>ARVE Error: mode is not set to 'normal', 'popup' or 'special' maybe typo</p>";
elseif ( $embedmode == '')
    $mode = 'default';
else
    $mode = $embedmode;

echo '<pre>';
var_dump($mode);
echo "</pre>";
}
echo test();

this is my attempt and I am getting a headache now it puts out the return message and I don’t know why

Answer 1

Your bad logic is here:

( $embedmode != 'normal' || $embedmode != 'popup' || $embedmode != 'popup' )

if $embedmode equals 'normal', then $embedmode != 'popup', so this whole bit is TRUE. I believe you want to replace || with &&.

For code that’s easier to reason about, I’d probably use in_array or switch, like this:

switch ($embedmode) {
  case 'normal':
  case 'popup':
  case 'special':
    // valid, proceed
    break;
  case '':
    $embedmode = 'default';
    break;
  default:
    trigger_error ("Embed mode '$embedmode' not valid.");
    break;
}