Re: newbie: a couple basic questions

Thank you kindly ... "Richard Lynch" <rich@phpbootcamp.com> wrote in message news:php.general-106302@news.php.net... > >1) in a fuction, does a return statment automatically exit the function as > >well? > > Yes. Nothing more will get executed inside the function after the "return;" > > Some purists claim that you should *NEVER* have a return *ANYWHERE* except > the last line of a function. > > EG: > > # WRONG > function divide($numerator, $denominator){ > if ($denomiator == 0){ > return ''; > } > else{ > return $numerator/$denominator; > } > } > > # RIGHT > function divide($numerator, $denominator){ > $result = ''; > if ($denominator == 0){ > $result = ''; > } > else{ > $result = $numerator/$denominator; > } > return $result; > } > > It probably seems "silly" here, but when your functions get to be three or > four screenfuls long, a "return" you aren't seeing on the monitor can > frequently get you very confused, very fast. > > > >2) can someone give me a better explination of $HTTP_POST_VARS > > If you give somebody an HTML FORM (like those forms you fill out on-line), > after they fill it out, the PHP page that *proccess* the FORM page will find > all the data in an array named $HTTP_POST_VARS. > > Actually, it got renamed to $_POST recently. (The old one will still work > for a while, but convert ASAP). > > Sample HTML: > > <HTML><BODY><FORM ACTION=process.php METHOD=POST> > <INPUT NAME=searchkey> <INPUT TYPE=SUBMIT NAME=search VALUE="Search"> > </FORM></BODY></HTML> > > Sample PHP: > (note the filename must match the ACTION= part above) > > <?php > echo "Searchkey is ", $_POST['searchkey'], "<BR>\n"; > echo "search button was clicked: ", isset($_POST['search']), > "<BR>\n"; > ?> > > You could even not "know" what fields are in the FORM, and just output all > of them: > > (this would be a "replacement" process.php file) > <?php > while (list($variable, $value) = each($_POST)){ > echo "$variable is $value<BR>\n"; > } > ?> > > -- > Like Music? http://l-i-e.com/artists.htm >