Macro substitution

[gtener]

function emptyzipcode($request) {
    global $requestslimit,$postal1,$postal2,$postal3,$postal4,$postal5,$postal6,$postal7,$postal8,$postal9,$postal10;

    $string = '(';
    for ($x = $request+1; $x <= 9; $x++) {
        $string = $string . '!empty($postal' . $x . ') or ';
    }

    $string = $string . '!empty($postal10))';
    $postal='postal'. $request;

    echo $string;    
    echo "<br/><br/>";
    echo $$postal;
    echo "<br/><br/>";
    echo $postal2;

    if (empty($$postal) and $$string){
        echo '<h2><font color="red">Failed!</font></h2>';
        echo '<h3>Request #' . $request . ' Zip Code Empty!</h3>';
        exit();
    }
}

I want to able to use the variable $string as a condition in the if statement; for example $string="(!empty($postal5) or !empty($postal6) or !empty($postal7) or !empty($postal8) or !empty($postal9) or !empty($postal10))"

Does anybody know how to do this? Thanks 

[gw1500se]

It is not clear to me what you are asking since "empty" returns a boolean value. Is the objective to return the first $postal* that is not empty?

[requinix]

If your code has and $$s in it then it is doing something terribly wrong.

Use an array for the postal codes like a normal person.

[gtener]

Thanks, great idea! I will use an array!!!

[requinix]

That was too easy...

To make sure we're on the same page, I'm talking about replacing those 10 $postals with a single array containing up to 10 items.
Note the "up to". You only store the good values in there, meaning the whole "I have to check if they're empty" doesn't need to happen (at least not once the values are in there).
It also means you could store more than 10 if you wanted. Like (up to) 15. Or maybe you decide you have too many and want to lower it to having (up to) 5. Or whatever. And the code using the array wouldn't have to change.