Question

How can I set one variable to true based on other conditions. Here, instead of doing

if ($vara && $varb && $varc)

I’m something like below. Problem is, I’m just not getting something right. Can you please help me?

<?php

$onward = false;

$vara = 11;
$varb = 21;
$varc = 3;

if ($vara == 1)
{$onward = true;}else{$onward = false;}

if ($varb == 2)
{$onward = true;}else{$onward = false;}

if ($varc == 3)
{$onward = true;}else{$onward = false;}

if ($onward)
{
echo "Ok";
}else {echo "Not ok";}

?>

Answer 1

Each of your conditions ignores the result of the previous condition. You need to include the previous state of $onward in each subsequent test:

if ($vara == 1)
{$onward = true;}else{$onward = false;}

if ($varb == 2 && $onward)
{$onward = true;}else{$onward = false;}

if ($varc == 3 && $onward)
{$onward = true;}else{$onward = false;}

This way, varb and varc are only tested if $onward is still true after the previous test.

This is a particularly ugly way of writing code. If you have three large conditions and you don’t simply want to join them on one line as in your $vara && $varb && $varc, you should be writing it this way:

$onward = ($vara == 1)
$onward = $onward && ($varb == 2);
$onward = $onward && ($varb == 3);    

Any time you’re simply returning/setting something to true/false in the branches if your if statement, you should just be returning/setting the condition itself.

That is, this:

if (condition) {
  return true;
} else {
  return false;
}

should always be written:

return condition;