Step 6 In Script 2.4

[JasonHegarty]

Hi first time post - just got the book a couple of days ago - the book is great!

 

Struggling to understand this though..

 

Step six asks you to write this script:

 

//check comments were entered.
if (!empty($_REQUEST['comments'])){
$comments = $_REQUEST['comments'];
} else {
$comments = NULL;
echo '<p class ="error">What you don\'t want to comment afterall?</p>';
}
//validate gender variable.
if (isset($_REQUEST['gender'])){
$gender = $_REQUEST['gender'];
if ($gender == 'M') {

$greeting = '<p><b>Good day, sir!</b></p>';

} elseif ($gender == 'F') {

$greeting = '<p><b>Good day, Madam!</b></p>';

} else {
$gender = NULL;
echo '<p class = "error">Gender should be either "M" or "F"!</p>';

}

 

Why would you create $greeting which is different depending on the answer stored in the $gender when echo would do? Am I missing something here? Also its the first time $greeting has been mentioned in this script and I can't see it referenced elsewhere which up until this point when a new variable has been introduced the book has explained what it is storing or doing.

 

Help!

 

One other thing - if the user writes in the comments box the following: 'I didn't realise it was Sunday today' it is output after successful submission as 'I didn\'t realsie is was Sunday today'

 

Anyway to fix this so that the \ isn't output?

Edited July 1, 2012 by JasonHegarty

[margaux]

Regarding your second question, your system probably has magic quotes turned on. You can look up magic quotes in the php manual - even though it is deprecated, a lot of hosts keep it enabled. To override it you can check for it and then use stripslashes() e.g.

 

$comments = (get_magic_quotes_gpc() ? stripslashes($_REQUEST['comments']) : $_REQUEST['comments']);

[JasonHegarty]

Regarding your second question, your system probably has magic quotes turned on. You can look up magic quotes in the php manual - even though it is deprecated, a lot of hosts keep it enabled. To override it you can check for it and then use stripslashes() e.g.

 

$comments = (get_magic_quotes_gpc() ? stripslashes($_REQUEST['comments']) : $_REQUEST['comments']);

 

Thanks for this margaux worked a treat!

[Larry]

Thanks for the nice words, Jason. And thanks Margaux for helping!