Declare variables in advance question

I want to declare these variables Game_id and Member_id in advance. Following the suggestionfrom one of my books can I do something like this: $expected = array('Game_id', 'Member_id');foreach($expected AS $key) { if ( !empty($_POST[$key])) { ${$key} = $_POST[$key]; } else { ${$key} = NULL; }} case "addmember": switch ($_GET['type']) { case "membergame": $sql = "INSERT INTO xsm_membergames (Game_id, Member_id) VALUES ('" . mysql_real_escape_string((int)$_POST["Game_id"])) . "', '" . mysql_real_escape_string((int)$_POST["Member_id"])) . "')"; break; } break; My concern is did I achieve anything with the code I just added to declare the variables? Is it actually being passed to this: case "addmember": switch ($_GET['type']) { case "membergame": $sql = "INSERT INTO xsm_membergames (Game_id, Member_id) VALUES ('" . mysql_real_escape_string((int)$_POST["Game_id"]) . "', '" . mysql_real_escape_string((int)$_POST["Member_id"]) . "')"; break; } break; I did add this and tested it on my server and I didnt recieve any errors. So how can I be sure its doing what I intended? _________________________________________________________________ See what you’re getting into…before you go there http://newlivehotmail.com/?ocid=TXT_TAGHM_migration_HM_viral_preview_0507