I have just started learning and have put together the form below. The confusion I have is when I use empty to validate if the user selected or entered any information, the code generates the error below.
I noticed if I have the following lines of code
if(empty($gender)) {
$errormessage[2] = "Please select your gender";
}
as
if(empty($_POST["gender"])) {
$errormessage[2] = "Please select your gender";
}
and
if(empty($gender)) {
$errormessage[2] = "Please select your gender";
}
as
if(empty($_POST["gender"])) {
$errormessage[2] = "Please select your gender";
}
I do not see the error message. I take it that error message is being generated because of the lines of code $_POST for the gender and media form elements which are radio buttons and checkboxes respectively. However if I want to initialize all the variables at the top, what is the best way to do so?
/* <?php
if(isset($_POST["submit"])) {
$fname = $_POST["fname"];
$lname = $_POST["lname"];
$gender = $_POST["gender"];
$age = $_POST["age"];
$address = $_POST["address"];
$media = $_POST['media'];
$errormessage = array();
if(empty($fname)) {
$errormessage[0] = "Please enter your first name";
}
if(empty($lname)) {
$errormessage[1] = "Please enter your last name";
}
if(empty($gender)) {
$errormessage[2] = "Please select your gender";
}
if(empty($age)) {
$errormessage[3] = "Please select your age";
}
if(empty($address)) {
$errormessage[4] = "Please enter your address";
}
if(empty($media)) {
$errormessage = "Please select the type of media";
}
}
?>
<html>
<head>
<title>Sample Registration</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>Sample registration</h4>
<form name="registration" method="post" action="registration.php">
<div>
First Name: <br />
<input type="text" name="fname" value="">
</div>
<div>
Last Name: <br />
<input type="text" name="lname" value="">
</div>
<div>
Gender: <br />
male<input type="radio" name="gender" value="male">
female<input type="radio" name="gender" value="female">
</div>
<div>
Age: <br />
<select name="age">
<option value="">Please select your age</option>
<option value="18-25">18-25</option>
<option value="26-33">26-33</option>
</select>
</div>
<div>
Address: <br />
<textarea name="address" cols="10" rows="10"></textarea>
</div>
<div>
Sign-me up: <br />
<input type="checkbox" name="media['newsletter']" value="newsletter"> newsletter
<input type="checkbox" name="media['specials']" value="specials"> specials
<input type="checkbox" name="media['events']" value="events"> events
<div>
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="submit">
</div>
</form>
</body>
</html>
*/
/* Error Message */
! ) Notice: Undefined index: gender in C:\Program Files\EasyPHP-5.3.5.0\www\registration.php on line 7
Call Stack
# Time Memory Function Location
1 0.0004 341792 {main}( ) ..\registration.php:0
Dump $_SERVER
$_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] =
string '127.0.0.1' (length=9)
$_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] =
string 'POST' (length=4)
$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] =
string '/registration.php' (length=17)
Variables in local scope (#1)
$address =
Undefined
$age =
Undefined
$errormessage =
Undefined
$errormsg =
Undefined
$fname =
string '' (length=0)
$gender =
Undefined
$lname =
string '' (length=0)
$media =
Undefined
( ! ) Notice: Undefined index: media in C:\Program Files\EasyPHP-5.3.5.0\www\registration.php on line 10
Call Stack
# Time Memory Function Location
1 0.0004 341792 {main}( ) ..\registration.php:0
Variables in local scope (#1)
$address =
string '' (length=0)
$age =
string '' (length=0)
$errormessage =
Undefined
$errormsg =
Undefined
$fname =
string '' (length=0)
$gender =
null
$lname =
string '' (length=0)
$media =
Undefined
You’ll want to check whether those
$_POST['gender']and$_POST['media']variables were actually set in the HTTP POST request before you go accessing them; a better solution to initialize each$_POSTvar might be something like this:$fname = isset( $_POST['fname'] ) ? $_POST['fname'] : '';The above ternary assignment is equivalent to running the following logical expression for every single
$_POSTvariable in which you’re interested:If you implement either of these, you won’t get a notice if you run
empty()on$gender; furthermore, if$_POST['gender']wasn’t set,empty()will still behave the way you expect. It adds a little verbosity, but to rewrite your example you might try:Of course, you’d want to clean your data if you’re going to use it in a SQL context, but that should at least get you around the error you’re facing.
If you had a lot of these variables–or were repeating this task often–you might consider rolling it up into a function!