Question

I have a variable, for example $total1. It has a value from the database, for example 6.

Now I do an SQL query and it gets some numbers from tables. For example this:
$subtraction1=5, but it is in a while loop so the second time it could be $subtraction1=10 or something like that. Every time in the while loop the $subtraction_total variable would be $subtraction_total1+$subtraction1, because at the bottom of the page I would like to show the $total minus the $subtraction_total1.

But the first time in the while loop I must check if $subtraction_total already exists. I know to options to do that, but is there a shorter way?

Option 1 is to define the variable $subtraction_total1 before the while loop.

Option 2 is to do this:

(!isset($total_subtraction1)){$total_subtraction1=0;}$total_subtraction1=$total1-$subtraction1;

Now you think: well, just do option 1: define 1 variable, but it is for around 15 variables and I was just wondering if there is a shorter way;-)

Hope you understand me, my English is not very good;-)

Answer 1

Define and initialize all your variables before use. I think Option 1 follows logically from that.

Don’t try to write code that is short, or fast or tricky. Write code that is easy to read and maintain.