PHP Loop Help

[Altec]

I currently have this code:

                $month = htmlspecialchars(strip_tags($_POST['month']));
                $date = htmlspecialchars(strip_tags($_POST['date']));
                $year = htmlspecialchars(strip_tags($_POST['year']));
                $time = htmlspecialchars(strip_tags($_POST['time']));
                $title = htmlspecialchars(strip_tags($_POST['title']));
                $entry = $_POST['entry'];

To save a bit of space and add error detection without a massive if statement, I decided to do this:

                foreach($_POST as $key => $value) {
                    $value = trim($value);
                    if(empty($value)) {
                        $error .= 'Field ' . $key . ' empty.<br />';
                    }
                    if($key != 'entry') {
                        $_POST[$key] = htmlspecialchars(strip_tags($value));
                    }
                }
                
                if(isset($error)) {
                    $page = new Page('templates/sys/info.html');
                    $page->replace_tags(array(
                        'CONTENT'       => 'Error when processing post:<br /><br />' . $error,
                        'REFRESH'       => '',
                    ));
                    $page->output();
                    exit;
                }

 

However, the rest of my code still uses the original variable names ($date instead of $_POST['date']). Instead of going through the rest of my code and several included files and changing all the variable names, how can I easily make a new variable with the name of $key with the value of $value?

 

For some reason I just can't think of how to do this. Thanks.

[aniesh82]

 

I think, the extract() function will help you to do the task.

 

See the details at:

 

http://in2.php.net/manual/en/function.extract.php

 

I have also a suggestion for you. Please print the $_POST array before the first foreach loop. Mostly the POST array will contain more values than you expect. So in your case, it only need to loop the form fields...

 

Thank you,

Joseph

[Altec]

Thank you very much for the link about extract(). It was very helpful and is exactly what I was looking for.

 

Also, what do you mean by "print the $_POST array first?"

 

EDIT: Do you mean to actually define a new array with the $_POST values I want?

 

<?php

$fields = array(
    'month'     => $_POST['month'],
    'date'      => $_POST['date'],
    'year'      => $_POST['year'],
    'time'      => $_POST['time'],
    'title'     => $_POST['title'],
);

foreach($fields as $key => $value) {
    $value = trim($value);
    if(empty($value)) {
        $error .= 'Field ' . $key . ' empty.';
    }
    $fields[$key] = htmlspecialchar(strip_tags($value));
}

if(isset($error)) {
    $page = new Page('templates/sys/info.html');
    $page->replace_tags(array(
        'CONTENT'       => 'Error when processing post:<br /><br />' . $error,
        'REFRESH'       => '',
    ));
    $page->output();
    exit;
}

?>

[Maq]

To print out an array you should use the print_r() function.  Put this in before the foreach loop:

 

print_r ($fields);

[Altec]

I'm not seeing how that will help me...

[Maq]

Also, what do you mean by "print the $_POST array first?"

[Altec]

Right; what exactly will that do for me, other than print out an array?