firstnumbers is a checkbox that allows mulitple entry of numbers from (1-56). Input Form: easypick is a radio button that either is a Yes or No responce (returns Y/N). I have a user input information on a form which I am trying to test using the empty or isset commands but I am not having any luck. I have started writing a PHP program and am having trouble. I am just beginning to learn PHP, HTML, and SQL. I hope that helps someone out there avoid some of the coding mistakes I made early in the game. However, if you want to check to see if the variable has (or doesn’t have) an empty value, then you are better off using the empty function. Therefore, if you really only want to check to see if the variable exists, even if it has an empty value (or if you want to check if a variable doesn’t exist), then you want to use the isset() function. However, it may still have an “empty” value. Therefore, the variable you are usually checking from your form is, in the strictest sense of the word, “set”. That’s a good thing, but it’s not something you generally figure out right off the bat.Ģ) Forms will send blank values to the $_POST array instead of sending NULL values. Therefore, using !isset() is not the same as using empty(), nor is “!empty” the same as using isset(). They actually check for two very different things. There are two main points in this article:ġ) isset() and empty() are not exactly opposite of each other. Just a quick tip for people struggling with this. On the other hand, if you are trying to check the value of a radio button or combobox in which one of your possible values is “0”, then you should be using the isset() function.įor the first few form processors I worked on, I was consistently using the following code: if(isset($_POST) & $_POST != '')Ī more efficient way of doing this is obviously to use: if(!empty($_POST)) Therefore, if you are trying to process a form, and you want to make sure the person entered something into the field, you are much better off checking to see if the form value is empty, than you are checking to see if it isset(). Something else you need to know is that textareas and textboxes in forms will be sent with “” values rather than NULL values to the $_POST array. All variables that have any type of value, whether it is 0, a blank text string, etc. In other words, only variables that don’t exist (or, variables with strictly NULL values) will return FALSE on the isset() function. Returns TRUE if var exists FALSE otherwise. Here is the description of what the isset() function returns: In other words, everything from NULL, to 0 to “” will return TRUE when using the empty() function. Returns FALSE if var has a non-empty and non-zero value. I learned this the hard way a long time ago while I was working on my first few form processors in PHP.įrom the PHP Web site, referring to the empty() function: This is just a quick tutorial regarding the empty() and isset() functions for people that are fairly new to the world of PHP programming.

Php try catch field not empty