How do I debug my PHP validation function?
I am creating a web form for my job that is validated with PHP. However, when I test the page, I keep returning all error messages without submitting the form correctly when valid information is entered. Below is a small section of code (including HTML sections).
<?php
$date =""
$dateerror = ""
if ($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST") {
if (empty($_POST["date"])) {
$dateerror = "Date is required";
} else {
$date = test_input($_POST["date"]);
$array = explode("/", $date);
$day = $array[1];
$month = $array[0];
$year = $array[2];
if (!checkdate($month, $day, $year)) {
$dateerror = "Date mustbe in M/D/Y format";
} else {
date_default_timezone_set("America/Anchorage");
$today = strtotime("now");
if (strtotime($date)>=$today) {
$date = test_input($_POST["date"]);
} else {
$dateerror = "Date is before present day";
}
}
}
<input type="text" size="9" name="date" id="date" required title="Please enter current date"><?php echo $dateerror; ?><br>
Again, the PHP code simply returns "Date to Today" even when the date is current.
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If you want to check a date in PHP, the best way to do it is to use a class DateTime
viz createFromFormat
.
This call will create an object DateTime
set to the specified date in the given format, or false
if it was an invalid date.
So for example:
<?php
$input = "05/08/2015";
$test = DateTime::createFromFormat('d/m/Y', $input);
if (!$test) {
print "You entered an invalid date";
die;
}
$now = new DateTime();
if ($test < $now) {
print "Date is before present.";
die;
}
?>
Just. No need for regex or input explosion etc; just one simple test. Then you can also use the variable $test
to handle the date once you have determined that it is correct as it is a standard DateTime object.
[EDIT] I added a bit of code to deal with using a class DateTime
to handle date mappings to give a "to date" error.
The important point here is that if you have a DateTime object, you need to compare it to another DateTime object; the older one strtotime()
creates a different type of date resource before DateTime
and you cannot use them together (at least not without converting between them all the time).
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Solution: use date("M/D/Y")
:
$today = strtotime(date("M/D/Y")); // 1432958400
$date = strtotime($_POST["date"]); // user input. 05-30-2015 will yield 1432958400
// the rest of your logic here
Here's a specific solution for the code:
<?php
$date =""
$dateerror = ""
if ($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST") {
if (empty($_POST["date"])) {
$dateerror = "Date is required";
} else {
$date = test_input($_POST["date"]);
$array = explode("/", $date);
$day = $array[1];
$month = $array[0];
$year = $array[2];
if (!checkdate($month, $day, $year)) {
$dateerror = "Date mustbe in M/D/Y format";
} else {
date_default_timezone_set("America/Anchorage");
$today = strtotime(date("M/D/Y"));
if (strtotime($date)>=$today) {
$date = test_input($_POST["date"]);
} else {
$dateerror = "Date is before present day";
}
}
}
<input type="text" size="9" name="date" id="date" required title="Please enter current date"><?php echo $dateerror; ?><br>
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