PHP recursive function not setting nested arrays

Question

I have a variable set coming in from a form, and due to poor design by the original developer, the form will submit empty form element values as '' (empty single quotes), this wreaks havoc with some of the queries I am having to write because the functions read those as being values. I wrote a function to set any instances of '' to false, mainly because just capturing for if the value is false wasn't working. I re-wrote the function to be recursive in order to drill down into nested arrays.

function validateVars($vars){
    foreach($vars as $k => $v){
        is_array($k) ? validateVars($k) : $vars[$k] = ($v == '' ? FALSE : $v);
    }
    return $vars;
}

problem is, it sets all of the indexes with '' as the value to false as it should, but it isn't actually going into the arrays to set their values. Here's a sample dump:

array(14) { 
    ["title"]=> string(3) "JLR" 
    ["issue"]=> array(3) { 
        ["jobs"]=> string(11) "66055,66056" 
        ["Ids"]=> string(0) "" 
        ["DateRange"]=> string(0) "" } 
    ["article"]=> array(2) { 
        ["Jobs"]=> string(0) "" 
        ["Ids"]=> string(0) "" } 
    ["issueDateFields"]=> string(11) "DateCreated" 
    ["articleDateRange"]=> bool(false) 
    ["articleDateFields"]=> string(11) "DateCreated" 
    ["AdsJobs"]=> bool(false) 
    ["FMBMJobs"]=> bool(false) 
    ["AdsIds"]=> bool(false) 
    ["FMBMIds"]=> bool(false) 
    ["adsDateRange"]=> bool(false) 
    ["adsDateFields"]=> string(11) "DateCreated" 
    ["fmbmDateRange"]=> bool(false) 
    ["fmbmssueDateFields"]=> string(11) "DateCreated" 
}

deceze · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-29 15:10:52Z

2

You're testing the key and not the nested array value, and
you're doing nothing with the return value.

It needs to be this:

function validateVars(array $vars){
    foreach ($vars as &$value) {
        if (is_array($value)) {
             $value = validateVars($value);
        } else if ($value == '') {
             $value = false;
        }
    }
    return $vars;
}

If you like one-liners, at least do it properly. ;)

function validateVars(array $vars) {
    return array_map(
        function ($v) {
            return is_array($v) ? validateVars($v) : ($v == '' ? false : $v);
        },
        $vars
    );
}

edited Aug 29, 2014 at 15:10

answered Aug 29, 2014 at 15:05

deceze♦

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3 Comments

VikingBlooded Over a year ago

sadly, I have to be very careful as to how I implement things, once I am done, this will be maintained by people with even less knowledge of PHP and the DB engine than I have. So, it has to be something they can wrap their heads around.

Jared Farrish Over a year ago

@VikingBlooded - Then stay far, far away from ternaries (especially embedded ternaries). The first form is much, much more readable.

VikingBlooded Over a year ago

It's what I went with.

Joao · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-29 15:26:45Z

0

It seems like you're passing the array key into is_array() which will always evaluate to false.

Also, you're changing the local $vars variable but not using the output:

$vars = [];//this is your array

$vars = validateVars($vars);

function validateVars($myVars){
    foreach($myVars as $k => $v){
        is_array($v) ? $myVars[$k] = validateVars($v) : $myVars[$k] = ($v == '' ? FALSE : $v);
    }
    return $myVars;
}

Which would modify your initial array.

edited Aug 29, 2014 at 15:26

answered Aug 29, 2014 at 15:04

Joao

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2 Comments

Joao Over a year ago

Sorry, I edited it a bit to include the function call. I haven't tested this, but my answer is similar to deceze's

Jared Farrish Over a year ago

You can't use a variable like that without importing using the global keyword within the function, and global variables are highly discouraged, especially for something like this.

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