returning values from one method to another - php

Question

I don't know why this don't work at all. I maybe wrong with my understanding that is why.
here is the situation.
MVC pattern
form validation stuffs
Here are the codes
public function userExist($data)
{
$string = "SELECT student_number FROM users WHERE student_number = :user";
$sth = $this->db->prepare($string);
$sth->execute(array(
':user' => $data['user']
));
return $sth->rowCount() == 0 ? true : false;
}
public function validate($data) {
$this->userExist($data);
}
What i want is to return a string, that says "user exists", if the userExist method is false ... But this code doesn't work:
if($sth->rowCount() == 0) {
return true;
} else {
return "User Already Exists";
}
This is, how i call them in the controller:
if ($this->model->validate($data) == true) {
$this->model->create($data);
header('Location: '.URL.'users');
} else {
echo $this->model->validate($data);
die();
}
What do you think is the best solution?

Answer 1

First of all, you need to return the value of validate:
public function validate($data) {
$this->userExist($data);
}
But there are some other problems here. You don't need to call $this->model->validate($data) twice in your controller. You could do something like:
$result = false;
$result = $this->model->validate($data);
if ( true === $result {
$this->model->create($data);
header('Location: '.URL.'users');
} else {
die($result);
}