Passing multiple variables through a URL using OR instead of AND (&) - php

Question

I am trying to set up a website that will have a drop-down menu, and each option will direct you to a subset of the database. For example, people in the state of Ohio, or the state of Michigan, etc. I have some people who want to be pulled no matter what the state and there is a category called all_states. I've seen how I can add variables to the URL (example: http://www.website.com/page.htm?OH=1) I've also seen examples where two variables are set (example: http://www.website.com/page.htm?OH=1&all_states=1). But how do I set it up so that only one condition needs to be met, effectively an OR instead of an AND? I want to be able to set up links to call data, for example, for those where Ohio is true (OH=1) OR all_states is true (all_states=1) because some people did not specify a particular state but will help in all states so I need to be able to pull in each list in one URL command.

Answer 1

The & symbol in the URL is just a separator between variables, and does not mean that anything is required. Your PHP (or whatever is parsing the GET variables) is what should check for that.
For example, you could parse it by writing something like (in PHP):
if(isset($_GET['all_states'])){
// do something for all states //
}else{
$states = ["OH", "CA", ...];
// recurse through state abbreviations //
foreach($state in $states){
if(isset($_GET[$state])){
// do something for individual state //
}
}
}
In Javascript:
$(document).ready(function(e){
var allStates = getParameterByName('all_states');
if(isset(allStates)){
// do something for all states //
}else{
// check & do something for individual states //
}
});
function isset(obj){
return typeof(obj) !== 'undefined' && obj != null && obj !== '';
}
function getParameterByName(name) {
name = name.replace(/[\[]/, "\\[").replace(/[\]]/, "\\]");
var regex = new RegExp("[\\?&]" + name + "=([^&#]*)"),
results = regex.exec(location.search);
return results === null ? "" : decodeURIComponent(results[1].replace(/\+/g, " "));
}
Although I would personally recommend using a state variable, like this:
State Variable for Individual State: http://whatever.com/something.php?state=OH
State Variable for All States: http://whatever.com/something.php?state=all
And just check what the state variable is in your PHP instead.