[SOLVED] Most basic form question ever?

[tHud]

Hello,

 

I want to use this snippet to make sure the fields in a form are ok before processing it.

 

<FORM method="post">
To:<br>

<input type="text" name="name" size="40" value="<?php if($name) { print $name; } else { print "Insert Name"; } ?>">

<input name="action" type="submit" value="Update Form">

</FORM>

 

It works, but I don't understand why.

 

The if statement is checking for the variable $name, but I haven't used the code that I would normally use.

 

What I see in all my tutorials would lead me to use...

 

$name= $_POST['name];

 

So, I'm confused as to where the $name variable is being found. 

 

Thanks for your patience

[trq]

Seems your server is poorly configured and has register_globals switched on. This is never a good idea.

[tHud]

ah ok - well actually that is good news.

 

So a badly configured server/or register_globals converts the form field name into $name ?

 

Phew, I spent hours last night trying to work that out.

 

Thanks very much for answering so quickly

[Alt_F4]

this works because as thorpe said

Seems your server is poorly configured and has register_globals switched on. This is never a good idea.

and therefore the if is checking whether the variable $name exists. As the variable has not been initialized/declared in the code snippet provided the result will be that the textbox will have "Insert Name" in it.

 

if you wanted to use this to display the name after submitting the form, then you are correct and you would need to add

 

$name= $_POST['name];

 

hope that makes sense