Undefined variable while retrieving variable from action form scripts - php

Question

<?php
if($_POST) {
//not empty
//atleast 6 characters long
$errors = array();
//start validation
if(empty($_POST['email'])) {
$errors['email1'] = "<p style='color:red;font-family: BCompset, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:30px;'>Please write down your email!</p>";
}
//check errors
if(count($errors) == 0) {
//redirect to success pages
header("Location: success.php");
exit();
}
}
?>
<form action="" method="POST" class="searchform" dir="ltr">
<input type="text" name="email" placeholder="Your email address"/>
<button name="submit" type="submit" class="btn btn-default"><i class="fa fa-arrow-circle-o-right"></i></button>
<p><?php if(isset($errors['email1'])) echo $errors['email1']; ?></p>
<?php if(count($errors) == 0){
echo "<p id='para' dir='rtl'>
You can add your email to get the latest updates.</p>";
} ?>
</form>
I want to show the paragraph with id='para' (line 31) when the form is not submitted yet and if the user clicked on submit button without entering his email address ,the error message will pop up and that paragraph will not be shown anymore.. To do this I set the if(count($errors) == 0) but I get the Undefined variable error message on line 31. Maybe because I can not take a variable from action scripts until the form is not submitted. Any solution to my problem please?

Answer 1

Try this code:-
<?php
$errors = array();
if($_POST)
{
//not empty
//atleast 6 characters long
//start validation
if(empty($_POST['email']))
{
$errors['email1'] = "<p style='color:red;font-family: BCompset, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:30px;'>Please write down your email!</p>";
}
//check errors
if(count($errors) == 0)
{
//redirect to success pages
header("Location: success.php");
exit();
}
}
?>
<form action="" method="POST" class="searchform" dir="ltr">
<input type="text" name="email" placeholder="Your email address"/>
<button name="submit" type="submit" class="btn btn-default"><i class="fa fa-arrow-circle-o-right"></i></button>
<p><?php if(isset($errors['email1'])) echo $errors['email1']; ?></p>
<?php if(count($errors) == 0){echo "<p id='para' dir='rtl'>You can add your email to get the latest updates.</p>";}?>
</form>

Answer 2

The problem is that your <form> is outside the if($_POST), so it will be shown whether or not $_POST was set. But $errors is only set inside the if. There are two simple ways to fix this:
Move the initialization of $errors to before the if.
Use if(empty($errors) instead of if(count($errors) == 0). empty() doesn't complain if the variable isn't set.