Question

I need some help with Syntax on simplifying an equation in php (I have been using php for 3 days). In doing some research I have found that there may possibly be an easier way to code an equation. see existing code below:

<?php 
$w = $_POST['weight'];
$h = $_POST['height']; 
?>  

Hi, Your BMI is <?php echo bcmul(bcdiv($w,bcpow($h,2,2),2),703,2); ?>

According to a comment on http://www.php.net/manual/en I can simply the code to: bc($w/($h)^2*703). However, I get an error message that function undefined. Is there an easier way to code this equation?

Answer 1

Why do you need the BC functions? Do you need arbitrary precision? If not (as most applications don’t), you can just do:

$bmi = ($w/pow($h,2))*703;

And if you need to get a certain number of decimals, look into PHP’s number_format(), for example:

echo 'BMI to 3 decimal places is: '.number_format($bmi,3);