PHP GET method doesn't work in Xampps - php

Question

I'm a newbie in PHP and I'm confused about GET method.
Why the $text in the condition of the loop works with Appserv in Windows 7, but when I tried this code with Xampps on Mac it won't work I've to use for($i=0; $i<strlen($_GET['text']); $i++) instead.
At first, I understand that after I used isset($_GET['text']) so next time I just use only $text, but now I'm confused.
<? $color = array("#FFCCFF", "#FFCCCC", "#FFCC99", "#FF99FF", "#FF99CC",
"#FF9999", "#FF66FF", "#FF66CC", "#FF6699", "#FF6666");
if (isset($_GET['text'])) {
for($i=0; $i<strlen($text); $i++) {
$j = $i%10 ?>
<font color=<?= $color[$j]?>><? echo "$text[$i]"; ?></font>
}
} else {
echo "Empty String";
} ?>
The problem is solved by many of your help.
<?php $color = array("#FFCCFF", "#FFCCCC", "#FFCC99", "#FF99FF", "#FF99CC",
"#FF9999", "#FF66FF", "#FF66CC", "#FF6699", "#FF6666");
if( isset($_GET['text'])) {
$text = $_GET['text'];
for( $i=0; $i<strlen($text); $i++) {
$j = $i%10;
echo "<font color=$color[$j]>$text[$i]</font>";
}
} else
echo "Empty string";
?>
btw I'm trying to use HTML + PHP only because I want to practice with HTML before go in deep with CSS.

Answer 1

The actual answer to your question, if $text is working as an alias for $_GET['text'] is probably that your Windows server is configured with register_globals set to on, which would mean that anything passed over in your query string would be turned into the appropriate variable.
ie. ?awesome=true == $awesome = 'true'
This is bad. Disable register_globals at the offending side, and use $_GET['text'] to access your data.
Your code would look better a little something like this:
<?php
$color = array("#FFCCFF", "#FFCCCC", "#FFCC99", "#FF99FF", "#FF99CC",
"#FF9999", "#FF66FF", "#FF66CC", "#FF6699", "#FF6666");
if (isset($_GET['text'])) {
$text = $_GET['text'];
for($i=0; $i < strlen($text); $i++) {
$j = $i % 10; ?>
<span style="color: <?= $color[$j] ?>"><?= htmlentities($text[$i]); ?></span>
<?php }
} else {
echo "Empty String";
}
?>
Note that I have tidied up your code and made it slightly more sane/safe. htmlentities is used to stop XSS vulns that could come from this, despite being unlikely due to splitting the string. You were mixing up <?php echo .. ?> and <?= .. ?> for some reason, despite them being the exact same thing. Also, don't use <font>.
You said this:
At first, I understand that "after I used isset($_GET['text']) so next time I just use only($text), but now I'm confused.
If you know you're mixing them, why are you doing it? If you're checking for $_GET['text'] being set, then it's only logical that you would use that for access also.

Answer 2

Okay, why are you dropping in and out of PHP every line? It is allowed to have more than one line of PHP at a time, you know!
$_GET['text'] is a variable. Accessing it does nothing special, but it is special in that you can access it regardless of scope (it is superglobal). Referring to is as $text only works if the autoregister globals setting is enabled, which is not recommended for various reasons.
So, your code should look like:
<?php
$color = array(".....");
if( isset($_GET['text'])) {
$l = strlen($_GET['text']);
for( $i=0; $i<$l; $i++) {
$j = $i%10;
echo "<span style=\"color: ".$color[$j].";\">".$text[$i]."</span>";
}
}
else echo "Empty string";
?>
I also took the liberty of updating your HTML out of the last milennium.

Answer 3

You should initialize $text variable first, something like this:
$text = $_GET['text'];
This should work without any problems.

Answer 4

I'm still unsure as to what you're doing, but:
$colours = array("#FFCCFF", "#FFCCCC", "#FFCC99", "#FF99FF", "#FF99CC", "#FF9999", "#FF66FF", "#FF66CC", "#FF6699", "#FF6666");
if (isset($_GET['text'])) {
$text = $_GET['text'];
for ($i = 0; $i < strlen($text); $i++) {
$j = $i%10;
echo "<span style='color: {$colours[$j]}'>{$text[$i]}</span>";
}
}
else {
echo 'No text';
}