Avoid using isset in PHP when accessing $_POST, $_GET, and other variables?

Question

how can I prevent PHP from returning an Undefined variable error every time I try to check a variable if it has contents and that certain variable hasn\'t b

Answer 1

If you want to set $_POST vars, having a whole lot of these statements really clutters your code:

if (isset($_POST['info']))
  $info = $_POST['info'];
... etc....

---

How about this?

function setPostVar( &$v ) {
    $trace = debug_backtrace();
    $vLine = file( __FILE__ );
    $fLine = $vLine[ $trace[0]['line'] - 1 ];
    preg_match( "#\\$(\w+)#", $fLine, $match ); 
    eval("\$v = isset(\$_POST[\"$match[1]\"])?\$_POST[\"$match[1]\"]:'';");
}

Now, as long as you are happy naming variables similar to your POST vars

ie. $Foo = $_POST['Foo'];

you can just do this:

setPostVar($Foo); // equivalent to if(isset($_POST['Foo']) $Foo = $_POST['Foo'];
setPostVar($Bar); // ditto
setPostVar($Baz); // ditto