Question

I have a pretty nasty error I can’t get rid of. Here’s the function causing the issue:

    function get_info_by_WatIAM($WatIAM, $info) { 
    $users_info = array();
    exec("uwdir -v userid={$WatIAM}", $users_info);
    foreach ($users_info as $user_info) {
        $exploded_info = explode(":", $user_info);
        if (isset($exploded_info[1])){              
            $infoArray[$exploded_info[0]] = $exploded_info[1];
        } 
    }
    return $infoArray[$info];   }

Here’s what’s calling the function:

} elseif (  empty(get_info_by_WatIAM($_POST['ownerId'])) ) { ... 

I would really appreciate any suggestion. Thanks very much!

If the code doesn’t make sense, here’s a further explanation: exec uses a program that stores information on all the users in a school. These include things like faculty, name, userid, etc. The $_POST['ownerId'] is a username — the idea is that, upon entering a username, all of the user’s information is automatically filled in

Answer 1

You do not need empty around function calls, in fact empty only works with variables and not functions (as you see). You only need empty if you want to test a variable that may not be set for thruthiness. It is pointless around a function call, since that function call must exist. Instead simply use:

} else if (!get_info_by_WatIAM($_POST['ownerId'])) { ... 

It does the same thing. For an in-depth explanation, read The Definitive Guide To PHP’s isset And empty.