How to manage couple of combo box working together? - php

Question

I'm having two comboboxes. One is like 'admin', 'city' , 'theatre' and the other one is daily and weekly. If user select one of item in first and daily in second it shows daily operations. If user select one of item in the first one select nothing in second one it shows daily and weekly operations. If user does not select anything in first and daily in second it brings all operations daily and son on.
Therefore I think there is 2^3 if conditions. Is there anyway to reduce this? I am using PHP language but I think core algorithm is same in all languages!
Following is what I have done so far for three conditions if it is admin and daily and weekly:
<?php
if(strlen($_POST['attribute'])>0)
{
echo "For admin: ";
echo "</br>";
//If admin
if($_POST['attribute'] == 'Admin'){
//If daily
if($_POST['date'] == 'Daily'){
echo "The only feature to show update is making a user admin\n";
echo "</br>";
$fh = fopen('back-up/makeadmin.txt','r');
$foo = true;
while ($line = fgets($fh)) {
if($foo){
//Current time
$now = new DateTimeImmutable();
//One week ago
$oneDayAgo = $now->sub(new DateInterval('P1D'));
echo "</br>";
echo "</br>";
$date = DateTime::createFromFormat('m/d/Y h:i:s a+', $line);
//Here you can compare your dates like any other variables
if ($date > $oneDayAgo) {
/* Nothing echo "Current date is less than 1 week old";
Break;
*/
break;
}
if ($date < $oneDayAgo) {
echo "$line";
}
var_dump($line);
}
$foo = (!$foo);
}
fclose($fh);
}
else { /*if($_POST['date'] == 'Weekly'){*/
echo "The only feature to show update is making a user admin\n";
echo "</br>";
$fh = fopen('back-up/makeadmin.txt','r');
$foo = true;
while ($line = fgets($fh)) {
if($foo){
//Current time
$now = new DateTimeImmutable();
//One week ago
$oneWeekAgo = $now->sub(new DateInterval('P1W'));
echo "</br>";
echo "</br>";
$date = DateTime::createFromFormat('m/d/Y h:i:s a+', $line);
//Here you can compare your dates like any other variables
if ($date > $oneWeekAgo) {
/* Nothing echo "Current date is less than 1 week old";
Break;
*/
}
if ($date < $oneWeekAgo) {
echo "Current date is more than 1 week old";
}
var_dump($line);
}
$foo = (!$foo);
}
fclose($fh);
}
//If not daily
else
{
echo "weekly";
}
}
}
else
{
echo "Not admin";
}
?>

Answer 1

I'm not familiar with PHP, but if your code has a lot of hard-coded if statements, it's a clear sign that you need a better data structure, or maybe any data structure at all.
For example, you duplicate a whole block of code that only differs in that the first uses $oneDayAgo and the second $oneWeekAgo?. You could easily make that into a variable someTimeAgo that is a time span of seven days or one day, depending on the value of your second list box.
I'm not sure what the selection of the first box is for, maybe the file to read from? You might be able to find some common behaviour fro these three cases, too, and try to express them in variables rather than code.
You could probably store the relevant data is an associative array whose keys are the values of the list boxes:
$span = array("Daily" => "P1D", "Weekly" => "P1W");
As a next step, you could even populate your list from PHP with the keys (the values left of the fat arrows) of the array and you could easily extens the list together with the time spans without adding any new code, just new data.
Lastly, an UI niggle: If you have only two values, you shouldn't use a drop-down list box. Use a group of two radio-buttons next to each other and the user will be able to see both options at one glance without having to click anything. (I also don't think these are combo boxes, because combo boxes allow to enter a value by either typing it in manually or selecting it from a drop-down list.)