Question

I have the following PHP code:

<?php

//code above    
$pic_1 = $afil['image_1'];  
$pic_2 = $afil['image_2'];
$pic_3 = $afil['image_3'];
$pic_4 = $afil['image_4'];
$pic_5 = $afil['image_5'];
$pic_6 = $afil['image_6'];
$pic_7= $afil['image_7'];
$pic_8 = $afil['image_8'];
$pic_9 = $afil['image_9'];
$pic_10 = $afil['image_10'];

if ($pic_1 = "")
{
$pic_1 = //defaultpic - to be defined, same as below
}

if ($pic_2 = "")
{
$pic_2 = //defaultpic
}
?>

Rather than repeat these “if” statements for each picture (up until $pic 10) i just wondered if somebody could point out a more elegant and efficient way of doing it. I am quite new to php and this is a new situation i have encountered. Thanks a lot in advance.

Answer 1

Use arrays and loop through them with just 1 if statement, like this,

 foreach($afil as $k => $v) {
  if(empty($v))
    $afil[$k] = ...//default pic
 }

Or, if you are keen to have an additional array $pics (for future use maybe),

foreach($afil as $k => $v) {
  $pics[$k] = $v;
  if(empty($v))
    $pics[$k] = ...//default pic
 }

Also, = is an assignment operator. For comparison (or condition check), you need to use == or === (type safe).

Edit:

 $afil = mysql_query(...);
 while($row = mysql_fetch_array($afil)) {
  //In here, say you create an array $result_rows with all the rows
  $result_rows[] = $row;
 } 

Then, use $result_rows in the foreach.