Question

I’m attempting to come up with the best way to use default variables and override them if a $_GET is passed via the URL. Right now, I only have two, but I’ll be adding more as I develop the site. Is there a better way?

I’m using define to define the variable and isset to determine if a variable is set and is not NULL.

define("THEME", "atom");
define("VERSION", "1.00");

if(isset($_GET["theme"]))
{
    $theme = $_GET["theme"];
} else
{
    $theme = THEME;
}
if(isset($_GET["version"]))
{
    $version = $_GET["version"];
} else
{
    $version = VERSION;
}

UPDATE
I decided on the following. I’m storing my site settings in settings.php:

$settings = array();
$settings['theme'] = 'default';

Then I include that file, use the ternary operator, and then define the variable:

include_once('settings.php');

$theme = (isset($_GET["theme"])) ? $_GET["theme"] : $settings['theme'];
define("THEME", $theme);

Answer 1

You can use ternary operators to lessen your typing.

$theme = (isset($_GET["theme"])) ? $_GET["theme"] : THEME;
$version= (isset($_GET["version"])) ? $_GET["version"] : VERSION;