Change $mailTo variable based on select input value (array) - php

Question

I have the following select list:
<form action="mail.php" method="POST">
<select name="foo" id="foo">
<option value="sales">Sales</option>
<option value="salesAssist">Sales Assist</option>
<option value="billing">Billing</option>
<option value="billingAssist">Billing Assist</option>
</select>
</form>
I need to route the $mailTo variable depending on which option they select, Sales and Sales Assist go to sales#email.com, while Billing and Billing Assist go to billing#email.com.
PHP pseudeo code!
<? php
$_POST['foo'] if inArray(sales, salesAssist) foo="sales#email.com";
else if inArray(billing, billingAssist) foo="billing#email.com";
mailTo="foo"
?>
I know there is nothing correct about the above, but you can see what I am trying to do, change a variable's value based on the selected value. I don't want to do this with JavaScript, I would rather learn more PHP here.

Answer 1

Your pseudocode is pretty much right on. Here is an implementation, using in_array():
if (in_array($_POST['foo'], array('sales', 'salesAssit')) {
$foo = 'sales#email.com';
}
elseif (in_array($_POST['foo'], array('billing', 'billingAssit')) {
$foo = 'billing#email.com';
}
Of course, there are other ways to go about this. With only two values to search for, you could also do something like this:
if ($_POST['foo'] == 'sales' || $_POST['foo'] == 'salesAssit') {
$foo = 'sales#email.com';
}
elseif ($_POST['foo'] == 'billing' || $_POST['foo'] == 'billingAssit') {
$foo = 'billing#email.com';
}
Or, just check for the occurrence of the 'billing' or 'sales', using strpos():
if (strpos($_POST['foo'], 'sales') !== false) {
$foo = 'sales#email.com';
}
elseif (strpos($_POST['foo'], 'billing') !== false) {
$foo = 'billing#email.com';
}
However, what I like to do in situations like these, where you know it will always be one option or the other, is assign one as the default, and only change it if necessary:
$foo = 'sales#email.com';
if (strpos($_POST['foo'], 'billing') !== false) {
$foo = 'billing#email.com';
}

Answer 2

Try :
function startsWith($haystack, $needle) {
return $needle === "" || strpos($haystack, $needle) === 0;
}
if(startsWith($_POST["foo"], "sales") {
$foo = "sales#email.com";
} else if(startsWith($_POST["foo"], "billing") {
$foo = "billing#email.com";
}

Answer 3

Keep it simple, sir by using and array of e-mail values which you then cross check with array_key_exists.
// Set an array of e-mails.
$email_array = array();
$email_array['sales'] = "sales#email.com";
$email_array['salesAssist'] = "sales#email.com";
$email_array['billing'] = "billing#email.com";
$email_array['billingAssist'] = "billing#email.com";
// Do basic checks on 'foo'. If not? It's null.
$foo = isset($_POST['foo']) && !empty($_POST['foo']) ? $_POST['foo'] : null;
// Now check if 'foo' is in the array. If not? It's null.
$mailTo = !empty($foo) && array_key_exists($foo, $email_array) ? $email_array[$foo] : null;
The benefit of doing it this way is it’s clean & simple. You can set any e-mail you want in the array. And you can even set a default—instead of null—if you wish if somehow the script gets returned with none of the options selected.
Or if ternary logic seems confusing & you would rather just act on the data right away, this will work:
// Do basic checks on 'foo'. And check if 'foo' is in the array. If not? It's null.
$mailTo = null;
if ((isset($_POST['foo']) && !empty($_POST['foo'])) && array_key_exists($_POST['foo'], $email_array)) {
$mailTo = $email_array[$foo];
}