“Notice: Undefined variable”, “Notice: Undefined index”, and “Notice: Undefined offset” using PHP

Question

I\'m running a PHP script and continue to receive errors like:

Notice: Undefined variable: my_variable_name in C:\\wamp\\www\\mypath\\index.php on line 10

Answer 1

Try these

Q1: this notice means $varname is not defined at current scope of the script.

Q2: Use of isset(), empty() conditions before using any suspicious variable works well.

// recommended solution for recent PHP versions
$user_name = $_SESSION['user_name'] ?? '';

// pre-7 PHP versions
$user_name = '';
if (!empty($_SESSION['user_name'])) {
     $user_name = $_SESSION['user_name'];
}

Or, as a quick and dirty solution:

// not the best solution, but works
// in your php setting use, it helps hiding site wide notices
error_reporting(E_ALL ^ E_NOTICE);

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Note about sessions:

• When using sessions, session_start(); is required to be placed inside all files using sessions.

• http://php.net/manual/en/features.sessions.php