Creating a function to check form data with PHP - php

Question

I've created an array that contains a form data (the form and php scripts are in a single php file).
I need to create a function to specify which one of the array elements are empty.
This is my code:
if(isset($_POST['submit'])){
$data=array("username"=>$_POST['username'],
"email"=>$_POST['email'],
"password1"=>$_POST['password1'],
"password2"=>$_POST['password2'],
"gender"=>$_POST['gender']);
check($data);
}
function check(){
if(isset($_POST['username']) && isset ($_POST['email']) && isset ($_POST['password1'])){
echo 'ok';
}
else{
echo 'missing';
}
}

Answer 1

Hi #Sina you didn't pass the param $data in the function definition.
<?php
if (isset($_POST['submit'])) { //only if form is submitted
$data = array(
'username' => $_POST['username'],
'email' => $_POST['email'],
'password1' => $_POST['password1'],
'password2' => $_POST['password2'],
'gender' => $_POST['gender']
);
check($data);
}
/**
* #description: validates the form data
* #return none
* #params array($data)
*/
function check($data) {
foreach ($data as $key => $value) {
if (empty($value)) {
echo ucwords($key)." is empty.<br/>";
}
}
}
?>
Thanks & Regards,
Vivek

Answer 2

Just use foreach :
function check($data)
{
foreach($data as $key => $value)
{
echo $key . isset($data[$key]) ? ' Ok' : ' Missing';
}
}
Edit : Fixed function with parameter

Answer 3

There are different ways of solving this, you can use foreach with empty() and a second array to contain the empty elements list.
Follow these steps:
Use foreach to get the values
Read index value and check if (empty($_POST[$key]))
If it's empty, either echo it or save it in a second array to use it later.

Answer 4

The following implementation is one suggestion but have a read at this good article on security and validations.
$_POST exists?
define a list of keys ( to iterate )
do validations in loop ie.isset(),is_null(),empty(),striptags/slash, sanitize etc.
Example:
if(empty($_POST)) {
// handle error ie. redirect
}
// define required keys or as constants using define();
$post_keys = array(
'username',
'email"'
'password1',
'password2',
'gender'
);
foreach($post_keys as $k => $v) {
// _isValid() is optional
// ie. or revalidate email format, empty string, blah etc.
// if(!isset($_POST[$k]) || !_isValid($k, $v)) { .. }
if(!isset($_POST[$k]) {
// handle error
}
}
// everything ok, do stuffs ie.$_POST['username'];
Hope this helps.