PHP condition is being output randomly? - php

Question

I'm having an issue with one of my conditional statements. The code below is a single text search where the user can enter a string and check a set of files within a directory. The code is working great, although I'm just having a small output glitch.
The 2nd conditional below (just before find_files function) is displaying one echo statement in the middle of my search results. In other words, my results are displaying perfectly, although that 2nd conditional statement appears once within the search results.
Even more weird is that the conditional does works when it's supposed to (i.e. when I enter a string and the string "is not found" within the files), so I'm confused. And I know the conditional is not included in a loop, so why would it display at all during the search?
This is the one last glitch I need to work out and this will work great. Any help would be appreciated.
<?php
$query = $_POST['query'];
if ((isset($query)) && (empty($query))) {
echo "<p style=\"color:darkgray; font-family:arial\">Your search produced no results</p>";
}
elseif ((isset($query)) && (!find_files('.'))) {
echo "<p style=\"color:darkgray; font-family:arial\">Your search produced no results</p>";
}
find_files('.');
function find_files($seed) {
if(! is_dir($seed)) return false;
$files = array();
$dirs = array($seed);
while(NULL !== ($dir = array_pop($dirs)))
{
if($dh = opendir($dir))
{
while( false !== ($file = readdir($dh)))
{
if($file == '.' || $file == '..') continue;
$path = $dir . '/' . $file;
if(is_dir($path)) { $dirs[] = $path; }
else { if(preg_match('/^.*\.(php[\d]?|js|txt)$/i', $path)) { check_files($path); }}
}
closedir($dh);
}
}
}
function check_files($this_file)
{
$query = $_POST['query'];
$str_to_find = $query;
if(!($content = file_get_contents($this_file))) { echo("<p style=\"color:darkgray; font-
family:arial\">Could not check $this_file</p>\n"); }
else { if(stristr($content, $str_to_find)) { echo("<p style=\"color:darkgray; font-
family:arial\">$this_file -> contains $str_to_find</p>\n"); }}
unset($content);
}
?>

Answer 1

Simply adding return, won't help. this modified code works and displays no error me
if (!isset($_REQUEST['query']))
{
//Ask for query here :)
//echo "<p style=\"color:darkgray; font-family:arial\">No query specified.</p>";
exit;
}
$query = isset($_REQUEST['query']) ? $_REQUEST['query'] : '';
if (empty($query))
{
echo "<p style=\"color:darkgray; font-family:arial\">Your search produced no results</p>";
exit;
}
$filesFound = find_files('.');
if (!$filesFound)
{
echo "<p style=\"color:darkgray; font-family:arial\">Your search produced no results</p>";
}
function find_files($seed)
{
if (!is_dir($seed)) return false;
$found = false;
$dirs = array($seed);
while (NULL !== ($dir = array_pop($dirs)))
{
if ($dh = opendir($dir))
{
while (false !== ($file = readdir($dh)))
{
if ($file == '.' || $file == '..') continue;
$path = $dir . '/' . $file;
if (is_dir($path))
{
$dirs[] = $path;
}
else
{
if (preg_match('/^.*\.(php[\d]?|js|txt)$/i', $path))
{
if (!$found)
{
$found = check_files($path);
}
}
}
}
closedir($dh);
}
}
return $found;
}
function check_files($this_file)
{
$query = $_REQUEST['query'];
$str_to_find = $query;
if (($content = file_get_contents($this_file)) === false)
{
echo("<p style=\"color:darkgray; font-family:arial\">Could not check $this_file</p>\n");
return false;
}
else
{
if (stristr($content, $str_to_find))
{
echo("<p style=\"color:darkgray; font-family:arial\">$this_file -> contains $str_to_find</p>\n");
return true;
}
}
}

Answer 2

In your second condition, you are checking to see if the condition: !find_files('.') matches. In order to check that condition, PHP is actually running the function at that time to get its return value, which it then checks for the condition.
On top of that, the find_files() function returns false when it is provided with incorrect input, but does not send a return value when it is successful. That means it does not provide the conditional statement with a value that evaluates to positive, so !find_files('.') evaluates to true, and the echo statement runs.
To fix this, you should just add a return true; as the very last line of your find_files() function.
But I'd also recommend fixing the fact that you're running the function twice. Use something like:
if ((isset($query)) && (empty($query))) {
echo "<p style=\"color:darkgray; font-family:arial\">Your search produced no results</p>";
}
else {
$success = find_files('.');
if ((isset($query)) && (!$success)) {
echo "<p style=\"color:darkgray; font-family:arial\">Your search produced no results</p>";
}
}
Instead of:
if ((isset($query)) && (empty($query))) {
echo "<p style=\"color:darkgray; font-family:arial\">Your search produced no results</p>";
}
elseif ((isset($query)) && (!find_files('.'))) {
echo "<p style=\"color:darkgray; font-family:arial\">Your search produced no results</p>";
}
find_files('.');