Simple PHP Error [closed] - php

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<?php
$text = $_POST['username', 'bio', 'service', 'age'];
if (empty($text )) {
echo "You forgot to fill in a field.";
}
else
echo "Passed.";
?>
I know this seems like a really simple question but I cannot figure this out for the life of me. Thank you a bunch if you guys can figure this out for me.
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ',', expecting ']' in /home/burtonmo/public_html/v2/add.php on line 2

Answer 1

You can only access one element at a time in an array. Change your code to something like
$username = $_POST['username'];
$bio = $_POST['bio'];
$service = $_POST['service'];
$age = $_POST['age'];
if (empty($username) || empty($bio) || empty($service) || empty($age)) {
echo "You forgot to fill in a field.";
}
else
echo "Passed.";

Answer 2

There are quite a few ways to check variables are set, the way your doing is syntactically incorrect hence the error:
Here is a dynamic way that you can loop through an array of expected keys and check the corresponding $_POST[*]. Good for some situations and not for others:
$form_keys = array('username','bio','service','age');
$errors = array();
//check is POST
if($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD']=='POST'){
//loop $form_keys array
foreach ($form_keys as $form_key){
//check the corresponding $_POST[*] - if empty fill error
if(empty($_POST[$form_key])){
$errors[$form_key] = '*required field';
}
}
//error should be empty if all went well
if(empty($errors)){
//good - do something
}else{
//bad - show errors
//$errors contained which fields were empty
}
}
Or you can do it the standard way which is the best way IMO as you can assign different errors can validate based on other types like is_numeric(). Though its obviously a longer piece of code.
$errors = array();
//check is POST
if($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD']=='POST'){
//check user
if(empty($_POST['username'])){
$errors['username'] = '*required field';
}
//bio
if(empty($_POST['bio'])){
$errors['bio'] = '*required field';
}
//service
if(empty($_POST['service'])){
$errors['service'] = '*required field';
}
//age
if(empty($_POST['age'])){
$errors['age'] = '*required field';
}
//error should be empty if all went well
if(empty($errors)){
//good - do something
}else{
//bad - show errors
//$errors contained which fields were empty
}
}
Good Luck Hope it helps...