Validating multiple fields in one 'small' function in PHP

Question

i want to build a validation function(or even class) in php to check for empty fields in a form. The thing is that i want to check the fields one after another and if there is an empty one to send "The -field_name- is empty." If none is empty to continue with the rest of the script...

I have already made it using multiple nested if-else statements....but i was wondering if there is a more compact and programmer friendly way. I've tried using an array which i pass in a foreach statement and then i use a switch loop.

The nested if-else's:

function no_empties($first_name,$last_name,$username,$password,$password2,$user_email,$user_email2)
{
if ( !empty($first_name) )
{ if ( !empty($last_name ) )
    {if ( !empty($username  ) )
{if ( !empty($password  ) )
   {if ( !empty($password2) )
    {if ( !empty($user_email) )
        {if (!empty($user_email2) )
            {return TRUE;}
        else{ js_msg("Please retype your email!");return FALSE;};
                } 
    else {js_msg("Please enter a -valid- email!"); return FALSE;};
            }
else{js_msg("Please retype your password!");return FALSE;};
        } 
else {js_msg("Please enter a password!"  ); return FALSE;}; 
    } 
else {js_msg("Pleas enter a username!"); return FALSE;};
} 
else { js_msg("Please enter your last name!"); return FALSE;};  
} 
else { js_msg("Please enter your first name!"); return FALSE;};
}

The second case i described is this:



    $fields_array = array("first name"=>$first_name,"last name"=>$last_name,"username"=>$username,"password"=>$password,"retype password"=>$password2,"email"=>$user_email,"retype email"=>$user_email2);

    function TEST($fields_array)
    {
    foreach ($fields_array as $field_name => $input) 
    {
    switch (empty($input)) :
    case TRUE: return $output="The -{$field_name}- field is empty 
";   break;
    case FALSE:return $output= "No field is empty!!! Hooray! 
";        break;
    endswitch;
    }
    }

It is working but i cannot use it like this:

if ( TEST($fields_array)==TRUE ): echo $output; else: echo $output; endif;

Moreover it would be perfect if the code was in a form that was irrelevant of how many fields each form has. Someone would just enter an array like $fields = array ("first"=>$first,etc....) .

Any thoughts???????

Mathieu Dumoulin · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-24 21:18:31Z

4

I usually do it this way, find it cleaner and allows you to chain more errors at once than a single one:

$errors = array();
if(!isset($_POST['field1']) || !is_numeric($_POST['field1']) || $_POST['field1'] < 123){ $errors[] = 'Field1 is missing or has an invalid value'; }
if(!isset($_POST['field2']) || !is_string($_POST['field2']) || strlen($_POST['field2']) < 20){ $errors[] = 'Field2 is missing or is not long enough'; }
if(!isset($_POST['field3']) || !in_array($_POST['field3'], array('valid', 'values'))){ $errors[] = 'Field3 is missing or has an invalid value value not in list of (....)'; }
if(!isset($_POST['field4']) || strtotime($_POST['field4']) == false){ $errors[] = 'Field4 is missing or has an invalid date value'; }

if(count($errors) == 0){

    //Process

}

answered Jan 24, 2012 at 21:18

Mathieu Dumoulin

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1 Comment

Kostas Demiris Over a year ago

Really nice and clean. It can hold a lot of validations of different kind and it is really simple to read and alter after 6 months. Yet i think somehow it could return specific information to the user about what is wrong in every field rather than just tell him to figure it out by himself....always care for the dumb ones :] . Many thanks

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