Odd behaviour with the switch statement...

[PHP John]

I'm wanting to add a new index to the $_SESSION['fsb']['order'] array, and based on the action selected by the user in the form, it does that just fine in the case of "$stuff['formButtons']['addABag']", however, even though the new index is added successfully to the session array, the line highlighted in red under the "default" case, STILL executes wiping out the new index that I just created. I know this, because I printed out the array before the "break" on the proper case, and after the close of the switch. Before the break, the array was properly populated; after the close of the switch, the new index that I had just seen, was gone, and the $_SESSION['fsb']['order'] was empty.

Then, I commented out the red line in the default case and the session was properly populated outside of the switch. One other interesting thing, the line, "$bagNum = 1;" is not executed, even though the line above it is.

Can anyone see why this statement would be executed, or if I have something in my code that is causing this that I am overlooking?

  switch($action)
  {
    case $stuff['formButtons']['oops']:
      header('Location:'.$stuff['page']['stepTwo']);
      exit;
      break;
      
    case $stuff['formButtons']['lastBag']:
    case $stuff['formButtons']['changes']:
      addBagToSession($_POST, $bagNum);
      header('Location:'.$stuff['page']['stepTwo']);
      exit;
      break;
      
    case $stuff['formButtons']['addABag']:
      if(substr($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'], strlen($stuff['page']['stepOne'])*-1) == substr($thisPage, strlen($stuff['page']['stepOne'])*-1)) // This is so we don't wipe out the bag when adding from the review screen
      {
        $_SESSION['fsb']['order'][$bagNum] = addBagToSession($_POST);
        $bagNum++;
      }
      $_SESSION['fsb']['bagNum'] = $bagNum;
      break;
      
    case $stuff['formButtons']['edit']:
      $bagNum = $_POST['bagNum'];
      break;
      
    case $stuff['formButtons']['remove']:
      removeFromOrder($_POST['bagNum']);
      header('Location:'.$stuff['page']['stepTwo']);
      exit;
      break;
      
    default:
      $_SESSION['fsb']['order'] = array();
      $bagNum = 1;
      break;
  }

[Dachande663]

What's in $action?

[Wildhoney]

var_dump() the $action variable and all the other arrays that are contained in the cases to give you a better of idea of what it's doing.

[PHP John]

What's in $action?

$action is the name of the "submit" button. It's value is based on the condition of the form, and which "submit" button is pressed.

Its values can be:

"Add a bag" = $stuff['formButtons']['addABag']
"Save these changes" = $stuff['formButtons']['changes']
"No more bags" = $stuff['formButtons'][oops']
"This is the last bag" = $stuff['formButtons']['lastBag']

etc...

[PHP John]

var_dump() the $action variable and all the other arrays that are contained in the cases to give you a better of idea of what it's doing.

Here is the var_dump of $action and $stuff['formButtons']

string(15) "Add another bag"
array(9) {
  ["save"]=>
  string(21) "Save this information"
  ["addABag"]=>
  string(15) "Add another bag"
  ["changes"]=>
  string(18) "Save these changes"
  ["confirm"]=>
  string(15) "Place the order"
  ["edit"]=>
  string(13) "Edit this bag"
  ["lastBag"]=>
  string(20) "This is the last bag"
  ["oops"]=>
  string(12) "No more bags"
  ["remove"]=>
  string(15) "Remove this bag"
  ["send"]=>
  string(4) "Send"
}

Why would I have mulitples of "string(15)"? Especially in the array?

[Cups]

var_dump() explains what type is contained in an array along with the values.

print_r() shows just the values.

I use var_dump() especially if I suspect that some weird int to string conversion has happened, or I am not sure if I have a zero, null, or empty (not set) value, can also come in handy if you want to investigate character encoding problems. Most of the time I use print_r() **.

  ["send"]=>
  string(4) "Send" 

4 character string = "Send"

** Even better when used with Xdebug

[PHP John]

Ah! I didn't know that about var_dump (I usually use print_r(), also).