Question

Okay, so I have this partially working game, I know the solutions should be simple in terms of game play,but for a noob nothing is ever simple, so here, I am requesting help, as a noob, what am I doing wrong, I think it’s the way I setup the check-boxes, but I need other eyes, thank you.

<form action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>" method="post" />
<table border="1" align="center" />
<?php
$fire = $_REQUEST["fire"];
$variable = $_REQUEST["variable"];
$step = $_REQUEST["step"];
$i = $_REQUEST["i"];
$j = $_REQUEST["j"];

if(isset($_POST['$i$j']))
{ 
echo 'checked';
}

//first there will be script that randomly generate 5 ships for both users

$step = $_POST['step'];
//4 steps of the game
if ($step > 3) 
{
    $step = 1;
} 
else 
{
    $step += 1;
}//end if
//step 1, first player 
if ($step == 1) 
{
    echo "Player 1";
 // Loop through the alphabet from a to j and stop before k on this for loop
    for ($i = a; $i < k; $i++)
 {
 // Print out the table with the letters from a to j using the variable $i
     echo "<tr><td width='20' align='right'>$i</td>";
  // Loop through the numbers for $j using numbers from 1 to less than 11 which is 10;
       for ($j = 1; $j < 11; $j++)
    {

    echo "<td><input type='submit' value='fire' name='$i$j'></td>";
       } 
    // end for loop
     echo "</tr>";
    } 
 // end for loop
    echo "<tr><td></td>";

 for ($j = 1; $j < 11; $j++)
 {

     echo "<td>$j</td>";
    }
    echo "</tr></table>";
    //step 2 result of first player fire
} 

else if($step == 2)
 {

    echo "Result 1";
        for ($i = a; $i < k; $i++)
  {

     echo "<tr><td width='20' align='right'>$i</td>";
       for ($j = 1; $j < 11; $j++){
      //<input type="checkbox" name="state[]" value="NE">
         echo "<td><input type='checkbox' type='submit' checked='checked' name='$i$j'></td>";
       } // end for loop
     echo "</tr>";
    } // end for loop
    echo "<tr><td></td>";
    for ($j = 1; $j < 11; $j++){
     echo "<td>$j</td>";
    }
    echo "</tr></table><br><input type='submit' name='' value='Player 2 Turn'>";
    //step 3 second player fireing
} else if($step == 3) {
    echo "Player 2";
    for ($i = a; $i < k; $i++){
     echo "<tr><td width='20' align='right'>$i</td>";
       for ($j = 1; $j < 11; $j++){
         echo "<td><input type='submit' value='fire' name='$i$j'></td>";
       } // end for loop
     echo "</tr>";
    } // end for loop
    echo "<tr><td></td>";
    for ($j = 1; $j < 11; $j++){
     echo "<td>$j</td>";
    }
    echo "</tr></table>";
    //step 4 result of second player fire
} else {
    echo "Result 2 ";
    for ($i = a; $i < k; $i++){
     echo "<tr><td width='20' align='right'>$i</td>";
       for ($j = 1; $j < 11; $j++){
         echo "<td><input type='checkbox' checked='checked' disabled='disabled' name='$i$j'></td>";
       } // end for loop
     echo "</tr>";
    } // end for loop
    echo "<tr><td></td>";
    for ($j = 1; $j < 11; $j++){
     echo "<td>$j</td>";
    }
    echo "</tr></table><br><input type='submit' name='' value='Player 1 Turn'>";
}//end if
for ($j = 1; $j < 11; $j++){
       if ($checked){
         echo "<td><input type='checkbox' checked='checked' name='variable'></td>";
        } else {
         echo "<td><input type='checkbox' name='variable'></td>";
        }
       }  

?>

<input type="hidden" name="step" value="<?php echo "$step"; ?>"
</form>
</center>
</html>  

Answer 1

A couple of things I see wrong:

• echo "<td><input type='checkbox' type='submit' checked='checked' name='$i$j'></td>"; has two type attributes.
• <input type="hidden" name="step" value="<?php echo "$step"; ?>" does not close the input tag.
• Your not closing your table tag.

Try running your page through an online html validation service or use the firefox validation addon to validate the page and fix the errors in your html.

Another issue is that your not validating all your input from the user. ie. your $_REQUEST data. This can lead to Cross-site scripting and can be dangerous to users. Although this is only trivial in this example, user input validation is a good practice to get into in all situations.