PHP and undefined variables strategy

Question

I am a C++ programmer starting with PHP. I find that I lose most of the debugging time (and my selfesteem!) due to undefined variables. From what I know, the only way to dea

Answer 1

During development stages use

error_reporting(E_ALL);

which will show every error that has caused, all NOTICE errors, etc.

Keep an eye on your error_log as well. That will show you errors.

Use an error reporting system, example:

http://php.net/manual/en/function.set-error-handler.php

class ErrorReporter
{
    public function catch($errno, $errstr, $errfile, $errline)
    {
        if($errno == E_USER_NOTICE && !defined('DEBUG'))
        {
            // Catch all output buffer and clear states, redirect or include error page.
        }
    }
}

set_error_handler(array(new ErrorReporter,'catch'));

A few other tips is always use isset for variables that you may / may not have set because of a if statement let’s say.

Always use if(isset($_POST['key'])) or even better just use if(!empty($_POST['key'])) as this checks if the key exists and if the value is not empty.

Make sure you know your comparison operators as well. Languages like C# use == to check a Boolean state whereas in PHP to check data-types you have to use === and use == to check value states, and single = to assign a value!