if statement always evaluates to true

[Eric Linders]

Hello,

We have a form that is collecting user input. There are three fields
for each phone number (area code, prefix and suffix). I'm trying to
use a simple if statement to confirm if the first character in any of
the fields is "0". If it is, then I just redirect them to a different
page because it's someone that is just messing around. Unfortunately,
whenever the form loads, the if statement automatically evaluates to
true and the user always gets sent to the other page, even when they
have not typed anything in the form. Below is the code for the if
statement. if I comment out the header line, the form loads. Any help
would be greatly appreciated!

if (substr($HomePhone1, 0, 1) == "0" || substr($HomePhone2, 0, 1) ==
"0" || substr($HomePhone3, 0, 1) == "0" || substr($BusinessPhone1, 0,
1) == "0" || substr($BusinessPhone2, 0, 1) == "0" ||
substr($BusinessPhone3, 0, 1) == "0" || substr($CellPhone1, 0, 1) ==
"0" || substr($CellPhone2, 0, 1) == "0" || substr($CellPhone3, 0, 1)
== "0"){
header("Location: /otherpage.php");
}

BTW, I tried it with the zero as a number instead of a string and it
still worked incorrectly.

Thank you for any help.
- Eric

[Daniel Tryba]

Eric Linders <el********@hotmail.com> wrote:

if (substr($HomePhone1, 0, 1) == "0" || substr($HomePhone2, 0, 1) ==
"0" || substr($HomePhone3, 0, 1) == "0" || substr($BusinessPhone1, 0,
1) == "0" || substr($BusinessPhone2, 0, 1) == "0" ||
substr($BusinessPhone3, 0, 1) == "0" || substr($CellPhone1, 0, 1) ==
"0" || substr($CellPhone2, 0, 1) == "0" || substr($CellPhone3, 0, 1)
== "0"){
header("Location: /otherpage.php");
}

Couple of remarks
- to get the first character from a string: $HomePhone1{0}
- "0" evaluates to false, you should use === IMHO, now an undefined
variable will return false in substr and thus trigger the if
- grouping in the if, in your current code only 1 "0" is enough to
qualify:
if
(
($HomePhone1{0}==="0" && $HomePhone2{0}==="0" && $HomePhone3{0]==="0")
||
($BusiPhone1{0}==="0" && $BusiPhone2{0}==="0" && $BusiPhone3{0]==="0")
)
- Where is $HomePhone1 etc coming from? Make sure they are in _GET/_POST

--

Daniel Tryba

[Agelmar]

I'm guessing that $HomePhone1 is not defined. (substr() will evaluate to
false, as will "0", hence the condition will be satisified.) You need to use
$_GET['HomePhone1'] or $_POST['HomePhone1'] depending on how you submit the
form. See the 20,000 register_globals warnings in the manual for more
information.

hth
// Ian Fette
// Proponent, comp.lang.php

Eric Linders wrote:

Hello,

We have a form that is collecting user input. There are three fields
for each phone number (area code, prefix and suffix). I'm trying to
use a simple if statement to confirm if the first character in any of
the fields is "0". If it is, then I just redirect them to a different
page because it's someone that is just messing around. Unfortunately,
whenever the form loads, the if statement automatically evaluates to
true and the user always gets sent to the other page, even when they
have not typed anything in the form. Below is the code for the if
statement. if I comment out the header line, the form loads. Any help
would be greatly appreciated!

if (substr($HomePhone1, 0, 1) == "0" || substr($HomePhone2, 0, 1) ==
"0" || substr($HomePhone3, 0, 1) == "0" || substr($BusinessPhone1, 0,
1) == "0" || substr($BusinessPhone2, 0, 1) == "0" ||
substr($BusinessPhone3, 0, 1) == "0" || substr($CellPhone1, 0, 1) ==
"0" || substr($CellPhone2, 0, 1) == "0" || substr($CellPhone3, 0, 1)
== "0"){
header("Location: /otherpage.php");
}

BTW, I tried it with the zero as a number instead of a string and it
still worked incorrectly.

Thank you for any help.
- Eric

[The Plankmeister]

"Eric Linders" <el********@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:49**************************@posting.google.c om...

Hello,

We have a form that is collecting user input. There are three fields
for each phone number (area code, prefix and suffix). I'm trying to
use a simple if statement to confirm if the first character in any of
the fields is "0". If it is, then I just redirect them to a different
page because it's someone that is just messing around. Unfortunately,
whenever the form loads, the if statement automatically evaluates to
true and the user always gets sent to the other page, even when they
have not typed anything in the form. Below is the code for the if
statement. if I comment out the header line, the form loads. Any help
would be greatly appreciated!

if (substr($HomePhone1, 0, 1) == "0" || substr($HomePhone2, 0, 1) ==
"0" || substr($HomePhone3, 0, 1) == "0" || substr($BusinessPhone1, 0,
1) == "0" || substr($BusinessPhone2, 0, 1) == "0" ||
substr($BusinessPhone3, 0, 1) == "0" || substr($CellPhone1, 0, 1) ==
"0" || substr($CellPhone2, 0, 1) == "0" || substr($CellPhone3, 0, 1)
== "0"){
header("Location: /otherpage.php");
}

You need to check that the form variables are set. Do something like:

$HomePhone1 = isset($_POST['HomePhone1']) ? $_POST['HomePhone1'] : null;
$HomePhone2 = isset($_POST['HomePhone2']) ? $_POST['HomePhone2'] : null;
$HomePhone3 = isset($_POST['HomePhone3']) ? $_POST['HomePhone3'] : null;
$BusinessPhone1 = isset($_POST['BusinessPhone1']) ? $_POST['BusinessPhone1']
: null;
$BusinessPhone2 = isset($_POST['BusinessPhone2']) ? $_POST['BusinessPhone2']
: null;
$BusinessPhone3 = isset($_POST['BusinessPhone3']) ? $_POST['BusinessPhone3']
: null;
$CellPhone1 = isset($_POST['CellPhone1']) ? $_POST['CellPhone1'] : null;
$CellPhone2 = isset($_POST['CellPhone2']) ? $_POST['CellPhone2'] : null;
$CellPhone3 = isset($_POST['CellPhone3']) ? $_POST['CellPhone3'] : null;

Then you need to rework your if statement. You are using the bitwise or
operator. The logical or operator in PHP is the keyword "or". And also,
using regex would be a much more reliable method:

if(($HomePhone1 !== null and preg_match("/^0/", $HomePhone1)) or
($HomePhone2 !== null and preg_match("/^0/", $HomePhone2)) or
($HomePhone3 !== null and preg_match("/^0/", $HomePhone3)) or
($BusinessPhone1 !== null and preg_match("/^0/", $BusinessPhone1)) or
($BusinessPhone2 !== null and preg_match("/^0/", $BusinessPhone2)) or
($BusinessPhone3 !== null and preg_match("/^0/", $BusinessPhone3)) or
($CellPhone1 !== null and preg_match("/^0/", $CellPhone1)) or
($CellPhone2 !== null and preg_match("/^0/", $CellPhone2)) or
($CellPhone3 !== null and preg_match("/^0/", $CellPhone3)))
echo "There's a zero in a number!";
else
echo "There're no zeroes here!";
This means that if ANY of the numbers submitted contain a "0" as their first
character, then this code will echo "There's a zero in a number!". If there
are no leading zeroes, it will echo "There're no zeroes here!"
HTH.

Plankmeister.