Question

In my questions.php page in my Forum that i am creating, I am checking the GET[‘sort’] variable to know what to sort by, e.g. by votes, or, views etc etc. I have a drop down offering to sort by different things. But how do I make the sort that the page is on by the default value of the drop down list. This is what I have so far, but it is terribly long and messy. I’m sure there is a more professional way of doing it. If you can enlighten me, please do!

if(isset($_GET['sort']) && $_GET['sort']=='answers'){
        $questions = Question::find_most_answered();
        $page_title = 'Showing most answered questions! - '.SITE_NAME;
        $sortResults = "<select class=\"sortResults\" name=\"sortResult\" id=\"sortResult\">
                            <option value=\"questions.php?sort=answers\">Sorted By Most Answers</option>
                            <option value=\"questions.php?sort=votes\">Sorted By Most Voted</option>
                            <option value=\"questions.php?sort=recent\">Sorted By Most Recent</option>
                            <option value=\"questions.php?sort=oldest\">Sorted By Oldest</option>
                            <option value=\"questions.php?sort=views\">Sorted By Most Viewed</option>
                        </select>";
    }else if(isset($_GET['sort']) && $_GET['sort']=='oldest'){
        $questions = Question::find_oldest_questions();
        $page_title = 'Showing oldest questions! - '.SITE_NAME;
        $sortResults = "<select class=\"sortResults\" name=\"sortResult\" id=\"sortResult\">
                            <option value=\"questions.php?sort=oldest\">Sorted By Oldest</option>
                            <option value=\"questions.php?sort=answers\">Sorted By Most Answers</option>
                            <option value=\"questions.php?sort=votes\">Sorted By Most Voted</option>
                            <option value=\"questions.php?sort=recent\">Sorted By Most Recent</option>
                            <option value=\"questions.php?sort=views\">Sorted By Most Viewed</option>
                        </select>";
    }else if(isset($_GET['sort']) && $_GET['sort']=='recent'){
        $questions = Question::find_recent_questions();
        $page_title = 'Showing most recent questions! - '.SITE_NAME;
        $sortResults = "<select class=\"sortResults\" name=\"sortResult\" id=\"sortResult\">
                            <option value=\"questions.php?sort=recent\">Sorted By Most Recent</option>
                            <option value=\"questions.php?sort=answers\">Sorted By Most Answers</option>
                            <option value=\"questions.php?sort=votes\">Sorted By Most Voted</option>
                            <option value=\"questions.php?sort=oldest\">Sorted By Oldest</option>
                            <option value=\"questions.php?sort=views\">Sorted By Most Viewed</option>
                        </select>";
    }else if(isset($_GET['sort']) && $_GET['sort']=='views'){
        $questions = Question::find_most_viewed();
        $page_title = 'Showing most viewed questions! - '.SITE_NAME;
        $sortResults = "<select class=\"sortResults\" name=\"sortResult\" id=\"sortResult\">
                            <option value=\"questions.php?sort=views\">Sorted By Most Viewed</option>
                            <option value=\"questions.php?sort=votes\">Sorted By Most Voted</option>
                            <option value=\"questions.php?sort=answers\">Sorted By Most Answers</option>
                            <option value=\"questions.php?sort=recent\">Sorted By Most Recent</option>
                            <option value=\"questions.php?sort=oldest\">Sorted By Oldest</option>
                        </select>";
        }else{
            $questions = Question::find_most_voted();
            $page_title = 'Showing most voted questions! - '.SITE_NAME;
            $sortResults = "<select class=\"sortResults\" name=\"sortResult\" id=\"sortResult\">
                            <option value=\"questions.php?sort=votes\">Sorted By Most Voted</option>
                            <option value=\"questions.php?sort=answers\">Sorted By Most Answers</option>
                            <option value=\"questions.php?sort=recent\">Sorted By Most Recent</option>
                            <option value=\"questions.php?sort=oldest\">Sorted By Oldest</option>
                            <option value=\"questions.php?sort=views\">Sorted By Most Viewed</option>
                        </select>";
        }

Please help me if you can, and edit this to make it look nicer. I am not as expert at that.

Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

// establish a list of possible drop-down list options
// left-hand is the value, right hand is the "english" equivalent
$options = array(
  'views' => 'Most Viewed',
  'votes' => 'Most Voted',
  'answers' => 'Most Ansers',
  'recent' => 'Most Recent',
  'oldest' => 'Oldest'
);

// determine the sort value
$sort = (isset($_GET['sort']) && array_key_exists($_GET['sort'],$options)
      ? $_GET['sort']      // Input was valid, accept it
      : 'views');          // setup default sort here

// populate the questions list based on the sort
switch ($sort)
{
  case 'views': $questions = Question::find_most_viewed(); break;
  case 'votes': $questions = Question::find_most_voted(); break;
  case 'answers': $questions = Question::find_most_answered(); break;
  case 'recent': $questions = Question::find_recent_questions(); break;
  case 'oldest': default: $questions = Question::find_oldest_questions(); break;
}

// Setup the title based on the $options value
$page_title = 'Showing '.$options[$sort].' questions! - '.SITE_NAME;

// populate the sortResults based on the value of $sort, and iterate over
// it to reduce redundancy
$sortResults = "<select class=\"sortResults\" name=\"sortResult\" id=\"sortResult\">";
foreach ($options as $k => $v){
  // it matches the current sort, mark it as selected
  // (I assume this is what you were going for by moving it to the
  // top of the list?)
  $selected = '';
  if ($sort == $k) $selected = ' selected="selected"';

  // it's not the current filter, so append it to $sortResults
  $sortResults .= "<option value=\"questions.php?sort={$k}\"{$selected}>Sorted By {$v}</option>";
}
$sortResults .= "</select>";

Is probably how I’d tackle it.

1. Place options in an array you can reference
2. Validate $_GET based on keys in that array (and default if it’s an invalid or exempt entry)
3. Output options based on that $sort value.