[SOLVED] Conditional Statement Help

[crhiley]

To start, here is a snippet of my code...

    
/* Updates the news database */
function add_newsdb($filename, $news)
{
if(file_exists($filename)){
	$fh = fopen($filename, "r");
	$old_news = fread($fh, filesize($filename));
	fclose($fh); 
}
        
// Load old news into memory
$fh3 = fopen($filename, "w");
fwrite($fh3, "$news $old_news");
fclose($fh3);

}

if(strcmp($url, ''))	{
add_newsdb("news.dat", summary_page($subject, $date, $summary, $url));
}
else {
add_newsdb("news.dat", summary_page_nl($subject, $date, $summary));
}

add_article("../../news.html");

 

Now, I'm focusing on the conditional (if/else) statement. I want to do is determine if the $url string is null or not. If it's null, I want to update a database with the news story and no url. If the $url is not null, I want to update the database with story & the corresponding url. My problem is, the database gets updated twice when I use this conditional statement: first with the proper update and then with a blank update. Any idea why this blank update takes place and how to correct it? See my attachment for a visual of my problem.

 

What I've already tried: if(strlen($url, '')), if(strncmp($url, "http", 4)), etc with the same result. Also, I should mention that if I only include if(strcmp($url, '')) and no else{}, then there is only one update to the database.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Btown2]

my first thing was wrong, do this

 

if($url != "")
{
     /* add your news*/
}
else
{
    /*add your news as null*/
}

[crhiley]

Btown2, if($url != "") {}... was incorrect. I appreciate the quick reponse, but I'm curious if you read my entire post. After all, I specifically mentioned trying all types of string manipulation/comparrison/etc and nothing regarding the latter has yielded correct results. I think the problem is more dubious than we imagine. That being said, perhaps I should post the entire code I'm using:

 

/* Create a news story based on our template page */
function summary_page ($subject, $date, $summary, $url)
{
        global $summary_template;
        $t = new Template();
        $t->set_file("SummaryPage", $summary_template);
        $date = nl2br($date);
        $summary =  nl2br($summary);
        $t->set_var( array(
"subject" => $subject,
"date"    => $date,
"summary" => $summary,
"body" => $url));
        $t->parse("Summary", "SummaryPage");
        return $t->get_var("Summary");
        }

/* Create a news story based on our template page (NO HYPERLINK)*/
function summary_page_nl ($subject, $date, $summary)
{
        global $summary_template_nl;
        $t = new Template();
        $t->set_file("SummaryPageNl", $summary_template_nl);
        $date = nl2br($date);
        $summary =  nl2br($summary);
        $t->set_var( array(
"subject" => $subject,
"date"    => $date,
"summary" => $summary));
        $t->parse("SummaryNl", "SummaryPageNl");
        return $t->get_var("SummaryNl");
}

/* Updates the news database */
function add_newsdb($filename, $news)
{
        if(file_exists($filename)){
$fh = fopen($filename, "r");
$old_news = fread($fh, filesize($filename));
fclose($fh); 
        }
        // Load old news into memory
        $fh3 = fopen($filename, "w");
        fwrite($fh3, "$news $old_news");
        fclose($fh3);

}

/* Updates news.html */
function add_article($filename)
{

        // Load header into memory
        if (file_exists("header.dat")){
            $fh = fopen("header.dat", "r");
            $header = fread($fh, filesize("header.dat"));
            fclose($fh);
        }

        // Load footer into memory
        if (file_exists("footer.dat")){
            $fh2= fopen("footer.dat", "r");
            $footer = fread($fh2, filesize("footer.dat"));
            fclose($fh2);
        }

        // Load old news into memory
        if(file_exists("news.dat")){
$fh1 = fopen("news.dat", "r");
$old_news = fread($fh1, filesize("news.dat"));
fclose($fh1);
        }

        // Publish the News
        unlink("../../news.html");
        $fh = fopen($filename, "w");
        fwrite($fh, "$header \n $old_news \n\n $footer");
        fclose($fh);
}

if(strcmp($url, "")){
        add_newsdb("news.dat", summary_page($subject, $date, $summary, $url));
}
else {
        add_newsdb("news.dat", summary_page_nl($subject, $date, $summary));
}

add_article("../../news.html");

 

Again, help is greatly appreciated.

[maxudaskin]

my first thing was wrong, do this

 

if($url != "")
{
     /* add your news*/
}
else
{
    /*add your news as null*/
}

 

Uhh.. wouldn't it be better to do this?

 

<?php
if(!empty($url))
{
     /* add your news*/
}
else
{
    /*add your news as null*/
}
?>

[crhiley]

I solved the problem myself. Let's look at my original code:

 

<?php...
if(strcmp($url, "")){
        add_newsdb("news.dat", summary_page($subject, $date, $summary, $url));
}
else {
        add_newsdb("news.dat", summary_page_nl($subject, $date, $summary));
}
?>

 

The solution: When the page loaded, the php routine initialized and ran its course up to the "?>". Hence, when it checked for an empty string in the conditional statement, one was found and the database was updated with an empty entry. To counter-act this, I needed two if statements...like this:

 

<?php...
if(!empty($another_string)) {
     if(strcmp($url, "")){
         add_newsdb("news.dat", summary_page($subject, $date, $summary, $url));
     }
     else {
         add_newsdb("news.dat", summary_page_nl($subject, $date, $summary));
     }
}
?>