Boolean handling in PHP - php

Question

I have following code in my php script:
if ( $x != 'some_val_1' && $y['index']->title != "some_val_2" && $y['index']->title != "some_val_3" ) {
// Do something.
}
In the code shown above, index may/may not be set and thus when it is not set this code throws a php notice.
I changed it to:
if (isset($y['index']->title)) {
if ( $x != 'some_val_1' && $y['index']->title != "some_val_2" && $y['index']->title != "some_val_3" ) {
// Do something.
}
}
However since the "Do something" part is set to work when isset($y['index']->title is not equal to some_val_2 and some_val_3, the above does not work because the isset() condition I added skips the code.
So now the script does not throw notice but at the cost of completely changing the condition to something not desirable.
How can I change this code to not throw the PHP notice?

Answer 1

You can handle it in different ways, I initialize the variables if they are not defined:
if (! isset($y['index']->title)) {
$y['index']->title = '';
}
if ( $x != 'some_val_1' && $y['index']->title != "some_val_2" && $y['index']->title != "some_val_3" ) {
// Do something.
}
I prefer this way because I don't need to change my code and add if conditions (with isset for example) in all my program. I just add the conditions at the top of my code.

Answer 2

Since you are dealing with an array of objects, you can use the function array_key_exists().
Your code will look like this:
if ( array_key_exists('index',$y) && $x != 'some_val_1' && $y['index']->title != 'some_val_2' && $y['index']->title != 'some_val_3' ) {
// Do something.
}
You can read more about it here: http://php.net/manual/en/function.array-key-exists.php

Answer 3

You can try using isset & in_array in this scenario.
if ( $x != 'some_val_1'
&& isset($y['index']->title)
&& !in_array($y['index']->title, array("some_val_2", "some_val_3") ) ) {
// Do something.
}
The benefit of using in_array is that you validate case-sensitivity by passing TRUE / FALSE in the third parameter.