Question

PLS. I am very NEW to PHP so pls. understand.
OK so here it goes. . What I want to know first is that “Can a function and an if statement be in one code?” second for the code below, just take a look at where the NOTE is, what should i type in the if statement to make it say ” ARE THE SAME” if the values of the parameters $first and $second are the same and say ” ARE NOT THE SAME” if not.

    <?php
    function verify($first,$second)
    {
    echo $first . " and " . $second ;
    }
    echo
    verify ("1","2");

    if ($first === $second) /* **NOTE: I know this is wrong cause its not working** */
    echo " ARE THE SAME";
    else
    echo " ARE NOT THE SAME";
    ?>

I think thats about it.
Can anyone help?

Answer 1

Your basic problem is one of scope. Outside verify(), $first and $second are not defined. You could simply include the rest of your code inside the function body which would do what you want, eg

function verify($first,$second) {
    echo $first . " and " . $second ;

    if ($first === $second) {
        echo " ARE THE SAME";
    } else {
        echo " ARE NOT THE SAME";
    }
}

verify("1", "2");

… however functions that write to the output buffer are rarely a good idea. Instead, encapsulate the logic inside your function and leave the display to procedural code, eg

function verify($a, $b) {
    return $a === $b;
}

$first = '1';
$second = '2';
echo $first, ' and ', $second;
if (verify($first, $second)) {
    echo ' are the same';
} else {
    echo ' are not the same';
}