PHP Form validation using 'if'

Question

I'm currently building a very small 'contact' form for use on a personal site.

The form works, and each validation 'if' statement works individually, however, if for example I input a valid email address and phone number but leave the message blank, the email still sends and I get the success message.

My guess would be to include the small 'if' statements into the one checking whether my required fields are not empty, though i'm not sure how to do this correctly as it is nesting multiple 'if's into one.

Cheers

<?php 
            // Validation goes here
            $errors = '';
            $success = 'Success! Your message has been sent. You should receive a reply within 48 hours.';

            $email = $_POST['email']; 
            $name = $_POST['thename']; 
            $comments = $_POST['comments'];
            $number = $_POST['number']; 

            if(empty($name) || empty($email) || empty($comments)) {
                $errors .= "Error: please input a name, email address and your message.";
            } else {
                $errors = '';
            }

            if (!preg_match("/^[_a-z0-9-]+(\.[_a-z0-9-]+)*@[a-z0-9-]+(\.[a-z0-9-]+)*(\.[a-z]{2,3})$/i", $email)) {
                $errors .= "Error: Invalid email address";
            } else {
                $errors = '';
            }

            if (!preg_match("/^\(?0( *\d\)?){9,10}$/", $number)) {
                $errors .= "Error: Invalid phone number";
            } else {
                $errors = '';
            }

        ?>

        <!-- Display red error box or green success box depending on which is true -->
        <?php if(!empty($errors)): ?>
            <div class="validationbox | errorsbox">
                <?php echo $errors; ?>
            </div>
        <?php elseif(empty($errors)): ?>
            <div class="validationbox | successbox">
                <?php echo $success; ?>
            </div>
            <?php 
                $message = ''; // Blank message to start with so we can append to it.

                // Construct the message
                $message .= "
                    Name: {$_POST['thename']};
                    Email: {$_POST['email']};
                    Number: {$_POST['number']};
                    Enquiry-type: {$_POST['enquiry-options']};
                    Message: {$_POST['comments']};
";
                // [email protected]
                $to = 'test-email-deleted-for-stackoverflow'; 
                $subject = 'Message from Portfolio';
                $from = $_POST['thename'];
                // [email protected]
                $fromEmail = 'test-email-deleted-for-stackoverflow';
                $header = 'From: ' . $from . '<' . $fromEmail . '>';
                mail($to,$subject,$message,$header);
            ?>
        <?php endif; ?>
    <?php endif; ?>

You need to provide the code that contains the conditions for sending the email or not. — JBES
– JBES, Commented Jan 15, 2017 at 14:02
I think you have to delete your else-clauses, because every correct check will delete all previour setted errors. — Sascha A.
– Sascha A., Commented Jan 15, 2017 at 14:06
so just break up your ` if(empty($name) || empty($email) || empty($comments)) { $errors .= "Error: please input a name, email address and your message."; } else { $errors = ''; }` block into individual error messages and get rid of the else statements — BizzyBob
– BizzyBob, Commented Jan 15, 2017 at 14:06
otherwise you can use $errors as an array and have multiple errors listed. , e.g.$errors[]= "Invalid email address" ... Then you just need to check if count($errors) >0 to know if the form is invalid — David
– David, Commented Jan 15, 2017 at 14:08

BizzyBob · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-15 14:25:35Z

Your problem is that you are resetting $errors back to '' each time one of your validation conditions passes:

        if(empty($name) || empty($email) || empty($comments)) {
            $errors .= "Error: please input a name, email address and your message.";
        } else {
            $errors = '';
        }

        if (!preg_match("/^[_a-z0-9-]+(\.[_a-z0-9-]+)*@[a-z0-9-]+(\.[a-z0-9-]+)*(\.[a-z]{2,3})$/i", $email)) {
            $errors .= "Error: Invalid email address";
        } else {
            $errors = '';
        }

        if (!preg_match("/^\(?0( *\d\)?){9,10}$/", $number)) {
            $errors .= "Error: Invalid phone number";
        } else {
            $errors = '';
        }

You shouldn't do that, just leave error messages to whatever it previously was. This way, when you get to the end, $errors will contain a string of all the error messages combined. Since there could be multiple messages, you may want to put a break a the end of each one:

        if(empty($name) || empty($email) || empty($comments)) {
            $errors .= "Error: please input a name, email address and your message.<br>";
        } 

        if (!preg_match("/^[_a-z0-9-]+(\.[_a-z0-9-]+)*@[a-z0-9-]+(\.[a-z0-9-]+)*(\.[a-z]{2,3})$/i", $email)) {
            $errors .= "Error: Invalid email address<br>";
        } 

        if (!preg_match("/^\(?0( *\d\)?){9,10}$/", $number)) {
            $errors .= "Error: Invalid phone number<br>";
        }

In the case of email, you may want to only display the 'invalid email address' only when something was actually filled in, so you could also check to ensure there is something in there, before you determine if the format is valid or not:

    if (!empty($email) && !preg_match("/^[_a-z0-9-]+(\.[_a-z0-9-]+)*@[a-z0-9-]+(\.[a-z0-9-]+)*(\.[a-z]{2,3})$/i", $email)) {

Ebite Zion · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-15 14:25:18Z

1

Based on the information Supplied, i think you should use a complex if-elseif-else statement like so:

`if (condition) {
    code to be executed if this condition is true;
} elseif (condition) {
    code to be executed if this condition is true;
} else {
    code to be executed if all conditions are false;
} `

in your particular case:

// Validation goes here
                $errors = '';
                $success = 'Success! Your message has been sent. You should receive a reply within 48 hours.';

                $email = $_POST['email']; 
                $name = $_POST['thename']; 
                $comments = $_POST['comments'];
                $number = $_POST['number']; 

                if(empty($name) || empty($email) || empty($comments)) {
                    $errors .= "Error: please input a name, email address and your message.";
                } elseif(!preg_match("/^[_a-z0-9-]+(\.[_a-z0-9-]+)*@[a-z0-9-]+(\.[a-z0-9-]+)*(\.[a-z]{2,3})$/i", $email)) {
                    $errors = 'Error:invalid email';
                }elseif(!preg_match("/^\(?0( *\d\)?){9,10}$/", $number){
                    $errors .= "Error: Invalid phone number";

                } else {
                    //Do this on successful validation comes here
                }

answered Jan 15, 2017 at 14:25

Ebite Zion

3802 silver badges10 bronze badges

2 Comments

Alex E Over a year ago

Thankyou, very helpful :)

Ebite Zion Over a year ago

Alex i am glad to help.I have been helped a lot on this platform.Glad to return the favor.

sunil · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-16 13:18:24Z

1

try below code it helps you.

<?php 
            // Validation goes here
            $errors = '';
            $success = 'Success! Your message has been sent. You should receive a reply within 48 hours.';

            $email = $_POST['email']; 
            $name = $_POST['thename']; 
            $comments = $_POST['comments'];
            $number = $_POST['number']; 

            if(empty($name) || empty($email) || empty($comments)) {
                $errors .= "Error: please input a name, email address and your message.";
            } else {
                   if (!preg_match("/^[_a-z0-9-]+(\.[_a-z0-9-]+)*@[a-z0-9-]+(\.[a-z0-9-]+)*(\.[a-z]{2,3})$/i", $email)) {
                $errors .= "Error: Invalid email address";
            } else {
                $errors = '';
            }

            if (!preg_match("/^\(?0( *\d\)?){9,10}$/", $number)) {
                $errors .= "Error: Invalid phone number";
            } else {
                $errors = '';
            }
            }



        ?>

answered Jan 16, 2017 at 13:18

sunil

1951 gold badge4 silver badges11 bronze badges

3 Comments

sunil Over a year ago

it checks the valid email and phone only when your email,comments,name are not empty.

sunil Over a year ago

in your code if your message is empty at that time $error get message but your email address is proper so that it further becomes blank and message sent

sunil Over a year ago

if you need any help then you can ask

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