Form mailer help

[dragonedge]

I am terribly new to php but I need to write a form mailer that will loop through the form values to grab them and attach them to a single variable, that part is done now what i am having trouble with is I want to make a hidden input in HTML and list required fields and if those fields are not filled, display an error. Maybe I should just paste what I have so far.

 

HTML example:

<input type=hidden name="required" value="name,email">

 

that would be specifying that name and email are required and the php I have and am stuck on is

 

<?php

$form_fields = array_keys($HTTP_POST_VARS);
for ($i = 0; $i < sizeof($form_fields); $i++) {

    $thisField = $form_fields[$i];
    $thisValue = $HTTP_POST_VARS[$thisField];
    $msg .= $thisField . ":" . $thisValue . "\n\n";
    }

check_Required();

$headers ="From:" . $name . "<". $email."> \n";

$to = "me@myemail.com";






function check_Required() {

    $check = explode(",",$required);
        for($i=0; $i<count($check); $i++) {
         $stringToCheck = $check[$i];
         checkInput();
                }
                
}
        
        
function checkInput () {
    
        if($stringToCheck="" || " ") {
                echo '<script language="JavaScript">alert("Please enter required fields!");
                        history.go(-1);
                        </script>';
                exit;
                        }
}


@mail($to, $subject, $msg, $headers);
?>

I'm at a complete loss, any help is much appreciated