Conditional IF statement not working

[billy_111]

Hey,

I cant seem to work out why this if statement does not work. Basically i have populated a dropdown box via a select statement. The default field of the drop down is "Select Category"..

Now i dont want users to be able to select this category as it does not mean anything, therefore i am trying to use the following code:-

  if (isset($_REQUEST['added_by'])) 
 {       
     $description = mysql_escape_string($description);

     if($role_id == 0)
     {
          echo "Please select a category";
     }
     else
     {
           foreach ($_POST as $key=>$value)
          {
            ${$key} = addslashes(trim($value));       
          }     
          
          $sql="INSERT INTO recruitment_jobs
                (location_town_city, location_region, location_country, role_id, vacancies, contract, salary_low, salary_high, added_by, uploader_id, description, date_added)
                VALUES
                ('$location_town_city', '$location_region', '$location_country', '$role_id', '$vacancies', '$contract', '$salary_low', '$salary_high', '$added_by', '$uploader_id', '$description', NOW());";
               
          $mysql_insert = mysql_query($sql) or trigger_error(mysql_error() . "<p>$sql</p>", E_USER_ERROR);
          $_SESSION['pigeonhole']='Addition successful';
          $relocate='index.php';
          $job_id=mysql_insert_id();
     }
  } 

The code above keeps giving me the echo "Please select a category", but does not do the INSERT..

Can anyone please help

Regards

[Dan Grossman]

Well, it's not possible for it to give you "Please select a category" AND perform the insert. They're in the if and else clauses of a conditional, which can be either true or false, not both.

It sounds like $role_id, whatever that is (it's not set anywhere in this code), is always 0.

Are you by chance relying on these variables all being created for you via register_globals? That's not just bad practice, but downright dangerous since it's disabled by default. Even if your web host has it enabled now (which is bad), they could upgrade PHP and break your whole site overnight.

[thewebhostingdir]

What are you setting in the $role_id variable? echo "Please select a category"; will only fire if IF part is true. Hence, there must be some problem in assigning value to the $role_id variable. Please confirm.

[billy_111]

Hey,

I understand that it will ONLY do one or the other not both, but what i am saying is if i choose a category that is NOT '0' then it does not do the insert when it should.

Role id is set further down the page:-

            <select name="role_id" class="required addjob-input" id="role_id">
            <?
              $roles_result = mysql_query('SELECT * FROM recruitment_roles ORDER BY ranking, role_id;');
              while ($row=mysql_fetch_array($roles_result))
              {
                $selected=$row['role_id']==$role_id ? ' selected="selected"' : '';
                echo "<option value='".$row['role_id']."' $selected>".$row['role_name']."</option>";
              } // while
            ?>
            </select>

So all i am trying to do is prevent the code to work if the first category is selected..

[Dan Grossman]

Are you sure register_globals is enabled to populate $role_id for you?

You should be accessing a posted form through $_POST['role_id']

[billy_111]

Hey,

Thanks guys, i fixed the problem out and managed to do the following:-

  if ($_REQUEST['added_by'] && $_POST['role_id'] != '0') 

And added an 'option' before getting the values from the database..

            <select name="role_id" class="required addjob-input" id="role_id">
            <option value="0">[Please choose a job category]</option>
            <?
              $roles_result = mysql_query('SELECT * FROM recruitment_roles ORDER BY ranking, role_id;');
              while ($row=mysql_fetch_array($roles_result))
              {
                $selected=$row['role_id']==$role_id ? ' selected="selected"' : '';
                echo "<option value='".$row['role_id']."' $selected>".$row['role_name']."</option>";
              } // while
            ?>
            </select>

Regards