if ($b[$a]) $a=$b[$a]; More elegant way to write this?

Okay, I'm using this construction a LOT lately:
if ($b[$a]) $a=$b[$a]
(The IF is actually usually an isset() or != '' ... bu you get the
picture.)

I do it a lot, and it's really... awkward, both in terms of code and
the logical flops involved. I'm clearing info being passed to DB
queries, so a typical example might be:

$a = 'first'; //A value passed through a query string;

$b = array( 'first' ='first_name',
'last' ='last_name' ); //A conversion array. Some of
these are extremely complicated and swap out dependent on
circumstances, so I'm pretty happy with this as a way of double-
checking my queris befroe the hit the $sql;

if ( $b[$a] != '' ) $a = $b[$a]; //Get 'first_name';

Lookid how logn that was! And I had to repeat the array nest twice!
It's not that big a deal- except the ACTUAl queries I'm working on are
a bit more like...

if ( isset($this->sort_order[$extra['sort_order']]) )
$extra['sort_order'] = $this->sort_order[$extra['sort_order']];

....yeah. Is there a simple way to perform this operation WITHOUT
writing a custom function that I'm missing?

-Derik

re: if ($b[$a]) $a=$b[$a]; More elegant way to write this?

Derik wrote:
$a = $b[$a] || $a;


Cheers,
--
----------------------------------
Iván Sánchez Ortega -ivan-algarroba-sanchezortega-punto-es-

Las ideas no duran mucho. Hay que hacer algo con ellas.- Ramon y Cajal.

re: if ($b[$a]) $a=$b[$a]; More elegant way to write this?

Iván Sánchez Ortega schrieb:Nope. This would return a Boolean in PHP. (In JavaScript or Python it
would work, though.)

Greetings,
Thomas

--
Ce n'est pas parce qu'ils sont nombreux Ã* avoir tort qu'ils ont raison!
(Coluche)

re: if ($b[$a]) $a=$b[$a]; More elegant way to write this?

Thomas Mlynarczyk wrote:$a=(($b[$a])? $b[$a]:$a);

re: if ($b[$a]) $a=$b[$a]; More elegant way to write this?

On Jul 4, 7:02 pm, Thomas Mlynarczyk <tho...@mlynarczyk-webdesign.de>
wrote:($a=$b[$a]) || ($a='first');

C.