CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpvalidation
user887515
user887515

Reputation: 804

PHP & form validation

I have a form that I'm submitting via ajax, and I want to return a message of the list of fields that were empty.

I've got that all done and dusted, but it just seems really long winded on the PHP side of things.

How can I do the below in a less convoluted way?

<?php

if(empty($_POST["emailaddress"])){    
    $error = 'true';
    $validation_msg = 'Country missing.';
    if(empty($error_msg)){
        $error_msg .= $validation_msg;
    } else{
        $error_msg .= '\n' . $validation_msg;
    }    
}

if(empty($_POST["password"])){    
    $error = 'true';
    $validation_msg = 'Country missing.';
    if(empty($error_msg)){
        $error_msg .= $validation_msg;
    } else{
        $error_msg .= '\n' . $validation_msg;
    }    
}

if(empty($_POST["firstname"])){    
    $error = 'true';
    $validation_msg = 'First name missing.';
    if(empty($error_msg)){
        $error_msg .= $validation_msg;
    } else{
        $error_msg .= '\n' . $validation_msg;
    }    
}

if(empty($_POST["lastname"])){    
    $error = 'true';
    $validation_msg = 'Last name missing.';
    if(empty($error_msg)){
        $error_msg .= $validation_msg;
    } else{
        $error_msg .= '\n' . $validation_msg;
    }    
}

if($error){
    header('HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error');
    header('Content-Type: application/json');
    die($error_msg);
}

?>

Upvotes: 0

Views: 520

Answers (7)

Teena Thomas
Teena Thomas

Reputation: 5239

   if(empty($_POST["emailaddress"]) || empty($_POST["password"]) ||
   empty($_POST["firstname"]) || empty($_POST["lastname"]) ){    
    $error = TRUE;
    if ( empty($_POST["emailaddress"]) )
      $field = 'Email Address';
   else  if ( empty($_POST["password"]) )
      $field = 'Password';
   else  if ( empty($_POST["firstname"]) )
      $field = 'First Name';
   else 
      $field = 'Last Name';

    $validation_msg = $field . ' missing.';
    if(empty($error_msg)){
    $error_msg .= $validation_msg;
    } else{
    $error_msg .= '\n' . $validation_msg;
    }    
}

Upvotes: 0

acme
acme

Reputation: 14856

As your code is pretty repetitive you should think about writing a function that does the validation: 

$msgStack = array();

function validate($field, $msg, $msgStack) {
    if(empty($field)) {    
        $error = 'true';
        $msgStack[] = $msg;
    }
}

and call it like

validate($_POST['firstname'], 'Firstname is empty', $msgStack);

and then output all messages like

echo implode(PHP_EOL, $msgStack);

Upvotes: 0

Dave
Dave

Reputation: 1001

loop through the $_POST array

$error_msg = '';
foreach($_POST as $key => $val){
    if(empty($val)){ 
        $error = 'true'; 
        $error_msg .= $key." missing.\n"; 
    }
}

Upvotes: 4

exussum
exussum

Reputation: 18550

How about 

<?php
$array = new array{{"firstname","First Name"},{"lastname", "Last Name"}};

Then loop though the array

if(empty($_POST[$array[i][0])){               $error = 'true';           $validation_msg .= $array[i][1] ' missing.' . "\n";

I dont have access to PHP right now so not tested but the idea will work. Code may need tweaking

Upvotes: 0

Tchoupi
Tchoupi

Reputation: 14681

One big improvement would me to make $error_msg an array, that will remove the if (empty($error_msg)) {} part.

$error_msg = array();

Then add error messages using:

$error_msg[] = $validation_msg;

Then you can remove $error = 'true' every time you find an error, and at the end verify the content of your $error_msg array:

if(count($error_msg) > 0){

Upvotes: 0

andrewsi
andrewsi

Reputation: 10732

Try something like this:

$error_msg = array()

if(empty($_POST["lastname"])){    
    $error_msg[] = 'Last name missing.';
}

.... 

if($error_msg){
    header('HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error');
    header('Content-Type: application/json');
    die(implode("\n", $error_msg);
}

It generates an array of error messages. If there's anything in the array, implode it into a string and return that.

Upvotes: 2

jmotes
jmotes

Reputation: 2739

I'd recommend using the php Zebra Form library. It allows you to build your validation rules in a object oriented way and automatically generates javascript to do client-side validation as well.

http://stefangabos.ro/php-libraries/zebra-form/

Upvotes: 2

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