PHP Defaults to boolean from Yes / No

[trvo]

Hi Guys,

 

I'm new here and looking for help with an application that I am developing. Basically my application collates data over several pages of forms in an ini file and then puts it in the mysql database.

 

I have some Yes / No radio buttons on some of these forms which populate the .ini file with the word Yes or No. So up to this stage it all works fine. Now, when I retrieve the data php, for some reason, converts Yes or No into a boolean value. It also does this when retrieving the data back from mysql after I have written the word 'Yes' / 'No' to the database. I can over come this each time I reference it but I'd rather it worked fine in the first place to prevent any complications in the future. Can anyone suggest why this might be happening and how I can tell PHP not to change my data into what it 'thinks' is correct?

 

Many Thanks - Trev

[btherl]

How are you accessing the data (both the ini files and the database)?  With which functions?

[trvo]

To access the .ini data I am using this:

 

INI file:

[Options]
field=Yes

 

PHP Code:

// Build an array of data from the ini file
$ini_array = parse_ini_file($ini_filename);

// Output the data for the field: 'field'
echo $ini_array['field']; // Outputs a 1

 

The MySQL code is as follows (the content of field is 'Yes' but outputs a 1):

$id=$_GET['id'];

	$query = "SELECT * FROM `requests` WHERE `id`='".$id."'";
	$result=mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error());

	$field=mysql_result($result,0,"field");

 

Many Thanks - Trev

[trvo]

Please note, this only happens when the data is a Yes or No. Other data values output fine.

 

Kind Regards - Trev

[wildteen88]

Why don't you give the radio buttons a value of YES and NO in the HTML rather than getting PHP to set the value in the php.ini

 

Do you agree? Yes: <input type="radio" name="confirm" value="Yes" />   
<input type="radio" name="confirm" value="No" />

 

That way when when you access the data submitted from the form which ever radio button the user submitted it will return the string 'Yes' or 'No' for $_POST['confirm'] rather than true or false.

 

Remember radio buttons can only submit 1 value from the same group of radio buttons. You must name every radio button that belongs to a group the same name.

[trvo]

That is currently how it works...

 

User submits HTML form > PHP creates .ini file > More forms add more data to .ini file > .ini file reads back with 1 / 0 in the Yes / No fields when pulled back via php. Yes / No fields are always radios. However, when you actually open the newly created .ini it has the correct value of Yes / No.

 

Trev

[mjlogan]

Note:  There are reserved words which must not be used as keys for ini files. These include: null, yes, no, true, and false. Values null, no and false results in "", yes and true results in "1". Characters {}|&~![()" must not be used anywhere in the key and have a special meaning in the value.

[trvo]

Thanks a ton, guess I better find some cunning way to 're word' them.

 

Thanks again for all the help guys!

 

Trev

[btherl]

Regarding your mysql .. are you 100% sure that you are having "Yes" and "No" converted to bools?  Did you check them before you put them into the database, while they are in the database and also when you took them out?

 

The reason I am suspicious is that SQL interfaces, including php's mysql interface, always return strings.  You can see this in the return type on this page:

 

http://sg.php.net/manual/en/function.mysql-result.php

 

The function cannot return a boolean.  Additionally, Mysql does not even have a boolean data type.  It uses integers.  Can you try var_dump($field) immediately after the code you posted?

[trvo]

Sorry, that's my mistake, I'm quite deep into this, I was getting confused as to which pages pull data from where...Best get organised...I'm up to 200 9kb-ish pages so far and counting 

 

Thanks - Trev

[wildteen88]

Thanks a ton, guess I better find some cunning way to 're word' them.

 

Thanks again for all the help guys!

 

Trev

Can't you wrap quotes around yes and no instead? That way PHP will tread yes and no as a string and not as a boolean.

[trvo]

Perfect, yes, that works!

 

Thanks again for the help, seems like a very nice community, I will stick around and help out where I can 

 

Kind Regards - Trev