Functions

[lynlimz]

Hi,

How do you Define and Call Functions?
Also, How do you validate fields?

So if the form name is name
then you do this:

if ($name == '') { echo "Error! Name no Entered"; }
is it?

Thanks

[TWTCommish]

Try this...

  function checkField($field) {
    $switch = ($field == "") ? 0 : 1;
  return $switch.
  }

That will return a boolean value - 0 if the string is blank, 1 if it is not. This allows you to do something like this:

$check = checkField($name);

  if ($check) {
    echo("Hi, $name!");
  }
  else {
  echo("Invalid name entered.");
  }

Hope that helps.

[lynlimz]

Hi,
Thanks...Thats a really cool function.
Okie, Here's my problem I need to clarify.

It seems php functions must have variables parsed into the function to work?

it can't just be
function name {
}

? just like perl's subroutine?

Thanks

[firepages]

no you do not need to.... this is an example from the manual,
<?
function small_numbers() {
return array (0, 1, 2);
}
list ($zero, $one, $two) = small_numbers();
?>

[TWTCommish]

Yup, no problem at all - I sometimes create a small function called "error" - I simply use empty parentheses (like this: "()") after the name of the function.

I call that function like this:

error();

It simply prints out a generic error message, however, the true power of functions lies in accepting arguments and returning values.

[lynlimz]

Oh. I get it..
but you must put the ()

( and thats what I idnd't put..hence my functions were producing errors..ehehs )

Thanks for your help guys!

[freddydoesphp]

Alternately instead of calling the function for every field you want to check, you can use the $HTTP_POST_VARS array inside your function to check all at once.

function error_checking() {
global $HTTP_POST_VARS;
extract($HTTP_POST_VARS);
if ($name == "") $error[] = "You must put in a name";
if ($address == "") $error[] = "You must put in an address";
if ($city == "") $error[] = "You must put in a city";
return $error;
}


Sample usage

if ($submit) {
$error = error_checking();
if (count($error) > 0) {
foreach($error as $value) {
print $value."<br>";
}
}
}

[lynlimz]

WOW! thanks freddy!
Thats an excellent piece of code!

Jolting down....=)