PHP Assistance with empty() in a loop - php

Question

Let's say I wanted to check to see if a variable is empty and then do something... I can do this:
if ( empty($phone) ) { $phone = 'Not Provided'; }
But I want to do that for a bunch of items. So I'm thinking an array and a loop, so something like this:
$optionalFieldsArray = array($phone, $address, $city, $state, $zip);
foreach ($optionalFieldsArray as $value) {
//what goes here????
}
Is this foreach a resonable way to do it, where I could check if $phone, $address, $city, etc. are empty and assign the "Not Provided" string to it when it is?
If so, can someone help me with the syntax that goes inside that loop?

Answer 1

you can do like this:
<?php
$required_vars = array( 'phone', 'address', 'city', 'state', 'zip' );
foreach( $required_vars as $required_var ) {
if( empty( $$required_var ) )
$$required_var = 'Not Provided'; // $$var -> variable with name = value of $var
}
?>
check the above code yourself. then only you can understand how it works. because it is confusing concept.

Answer 2

$optionalFieldsArray = array('phone'=>$phone, 'address'=>$address, 'city'=>$city, 'state'=>$state, 'zip'=>$zip);
foreach ($optionalFieldsArray as $key => $value) {
if ( empty($value) ) { $optionalFieldsArray[$key] = 'Not Provided'; }
}
echo "<pre>";
print_r($optionalFieldsArray);
echo "</pre>";

Answer 3

I'd say something like -
$optionalFieldsArray = array($phone, $address, $city, $state, $zip);
foreach ($optionalFieldsArray as $key => $value) {
if ( empty($optionalFieldsArray[$key]) ) {
$optionalFieldsArray[$key] = 'Not Provided';
}
}

Answer 4

Combine the two code examples you provided, and use strings as keys in the optional array:
$optional = array(
'phone' => $phone,
'address' => $address,
'city' => $city,
'state' => $state,
'zip' => $zip,
);
foreach ($optional as $type => $value) {
if ($value == null) {
echo "The {$type} field is empty!<br>";
}
}

Answer 5

$optionalFieldsArray = array($phone, $address, $city, $state, $zip);
foreach($optionalFieldsArray as $k => $v) {
// you could check for !empty here if you wanted too
$optionalFieldsArray[$k] = empty($v) ? 'Not Provided' : $v;
}
print_r($optionalFieldsArray);
Input Vars:
$phone = "1234567899";
$address = "";
$city = "";
$state = "";
$zip = "";
Output:
Array ( [0] => 1234567899 [1] => Not Provided [2] => Not Provided [3] => Not Provided [4] => Not Provided )