php 5 and uninitialized variables

[steve]

i've setup a include page that's responsible for building the basic layout
of my web pages (header, menus, etc.). each page includes this
"sysheader.php" .

the first page i've built with this header is having odd results. its job is
to add users to the system. the variables i expect to be there are: id,
userName, password...stuf f like that. after the require_once
"sysheader.php" , i've put an "exit;" statement. the header shows perfectly.
if i try and access or set one of the expected variables, only part of the
header shows...crappin g out around the time it is building the company
logo - so that i see "<img src="http://www" and nothing else.

i've tried to set my own variable order and initialze the variables myself
like this:

$id = (isset($_POST['id']) ? $_POST['id'] : $_GET['id']);

but that doesn't work either. i've been running similarly constructed pages
successfully under php < 5...what am i missing now that i'm moving to php 5?

tia,

steve

[jblanch]

Hell off topic with them.. but you might want to check
htmlspecialchar s() on that script there.. sql injections visible at
first glance..

but anyways, you were on the right track with isset, i suggest just
making a simple function?
that is, if you are trying to assign a post/get variable to a php
variable... you could do somthign like this..

function setvar($var){
if(isset($_POST[$var])){
return $_POST[$var];
}
if(isset($_GET[$var])){
return $_GET[$var];
}
return "";
}

then just use
$p = setvar("p");
and p will be either the get, post, or "".

but the method you are using is doing one isset, with my local apache
it brings up errors like you have when i have unassigned variables, so
the easiest and safest thing to do is set them to null, then use the
isset..

$p = "";
if(isset($_GET['p'])) $p = $_GET['p'];

that will cause p to only be set with the get value if there is one..
(duh)

[steve]

"Daniel Tryba" <sp**@tryba.inv alid> wrote in message
news:41******** **************@ news.xs4all.nl. ..
| In comp.lang.php steve <[e-mail]> wrote:
| > | Quite possibly a bug in PHP 5. Sounds like one that causes the server
to
| > | sigfault, since PHP didn't even manage to flush the output buffer.
| >
| > i was fearful of that and, all indications are that it is so since
reverting
| > to php 4.3 and running the same code gives no errors and produces
exactly
| > the expected results.
|
| At the same level of error_reporting ?

hard to say "same" here, as i tried all different combinations of error
reporting on php 5. it simply stopped spewing output when it hit an
uninitialized variable. with php 4.3, i have e_all & ~ e_notice...whic h is
the default i believe.

i don't know if it made a difference in installation, but i did not
uninstall php 4.3 prior to the php 5 install...which did not require a
re-boot once complete (and i hadn't rebooted manually either). when the
problem showed itself and i could not resolve it, i uninstalled php 4.3. the
problem persisted. i uninstalled php 5 (*did* require a reboot) then
reinstalled php 4.3. may just have had a dll from 4.3 in memory until the
reboot...or something like that.

when i retry php 5, i'll take off php 4.3, reboot, then install 5 and see
what happens with the app then.

thanks for everyone's help.

[steve]

| Hell off topic with them.. but you might want to check
| htmlspecialchar s() on that script there.. sql injections visible at
| first glance..

yeah, there are a couple of things i'll go back and fix after i get the bulk
of the script written...i need to add data-prep (validation, error
reporting, etc.) which will be responsible for prep-ing it for use with sql
among other things.

mainly just working out connectivity, basic sql, and page layout(s) now.

| but anyways, you were on the right track with isset, i suggest just
| making a simple function?

i actually changed it to use $_request (which uses the php.ini settings for
variable assignment order):

$id = isset($_REQUEST['id']) ? $_REQUEST['id'] : 0;

this accomplishes the same thing as the example you posted and always sets
the var.

thanks for your thoughts and suggestions!

cheers,

steve