Question

I’m trying to get the last variable name displayed in my url and use it to determine what’s displayed on my page. For example, here’s my url:

http://mysite.php/catalog/?department=123&category=456&sub_category=789

If the URL is showing a sub_category then I want to display everything that would be considered a sub category. But, if the url only displays:

http://mysite.php/catalog/?department=123&category=456

Then I want to display content that only pertains to category.

Once I get the last varibale name I’ll use a switch statement to display the content. I’ve been working with this code, but it’s only getting the first variable name and not the last?

switch(key($_GET))
{
    case 'department':
        print('show department');
        break;
    case 'category':
        print('show category');
        break;
    case 'sub_category':
        print('show sub_category');
        break;
}

Maybe this isn’t the best approach, and if you have a better way than using a switch statement let me know 😉

Answer 1

Do not rely on the order of query string parameters. The better approach would be to check for the presence of parameters in a specific order:

if (isset($_GET["sub_category"]))
{
    print('show sub_category');
}
elseif (isset($_GET["category"]))
{
    print('show category');
}
elseif (isset($_GET["department"]))
{
    print('show department');
}
else
{
    print('show error');
}