Printing checkpoint variables ?!

[zulubanshee]

The array is being passed. sizeof($employee) always showing the correct number of boxes passed. But it's not printing. I've looked at tons of tutorials, but none of them quite get me there.

$view_current_employees_sql = "SELECT * FROM com_employee WHERE date_left_employment IS NULL order by first_name";
$view_current_employees_return = mysql_query($view_current_employees_sql);
while($row=mysql_fetch_array($view_current_employees_return))
{
 $employee_id = $row[0];
 $first_name = $row[1];
 $last_name = $row[2];
 $pay_scale = $row[3];
 $percentage = $row[4];
 $date_of_hire = $row[5];
?>
<tr>
 <td><input type="checkbox" name="employee[]" value="<?php $employee_id ?>">
 </td>
 <td><?php echo $first_name?>
 </td>
 <td><?php echo $last_name?></td>
 <td><?php echo $pay_scale?></td>
 <td><?php if($percentage == NULL)
  echo "n/a";
 else 
  echo $percentage;
?>
 </td>
 <td><?php if($date_of_hire == NULL)
  echo "unknown";
 else
  echo "$date_of_hire";
?>
 </td>
</tr>
if(isset($_POST['employee']))
{
echo "it's set<br/>"; /// WORKS
$employee = $_POST['employee'];
echo "$employee[0]"; ///DOESN'T WORK! :(
}

[rocknbil]

$employee = $_POST['employee'];
echo "$employee[0]"; ///DOESN'T WORK! :(

What happens if you do this?
echo "$employee";

[zulubanshee]

"Array"

[zulubanshee]

The array is being passed, but I can't seem to be able to print the damned thing. :)

[wsmeyer]

I always go back and try the simplest first:

$view_current_employees_sql = "SELECT * FROM com_employee WHERE date_left_employment IS NULL order by first_name LIMIT 1";

$view_current_employees_return = mysql_query($view_current_employees_sql);
while($row=mysql_fetch_array($view_current_employees_return))
{
print_r($row);

}

See if what that looks like and if your getting what you want / expect from your db query.

William.

[idfer]

You can try this:

echo '<pre>'.htmlentities(var_export($employee, true)).'</pre>';

or what i usually do when debugging:

echo '<pre>'.htmlentities(var_export($_REQUEST, true)).'</pre>';

That'll give you a clue about what's exactly being passed into your script. But anyways, i suspect the problem is here:

... value="<?php $employee_id ?>"

I think it should be:

... value="<?php [b]echo[/b] $employee_id[b];[/b] ?>"

Take a look at the generated page's source to see if your <checkbox> is formed properly.

[rocknbil]

echo "$employee"; --> "Array"

Okay how about var_dump($employee")?

The reason I asked is I was speculating that it might be a scalar string, but if it says "array" then that's what it is. But if it's empty, var_dump will tell you so.

[rocknbil]

(oops)
var_dump($employee);

(no quote)

[zulubanshee]

for one checkbox checked:
array(1) { [0]=> string(0) "" }

For two checkboxes:
array(2) { [0]=> string(0) "" [1]=> string(0) "" }

etc...

[rocknbil]

Bingo! At least, I think . . . see idfer's last comment.

array(2) { [0]=> string(0) "" [1]=> string(0) "" }

The empty strings tell you there's no value in the checkbox. So when you print "$employee[0]" it actually IS printing $employee[0]. It's just a blank string.

<input type="checkbox" name="employee[]" value="<?php $employee_id ?> <--- Note missing closing " quote

I don't **think** it's from the missing last quote - it might be - but more importantly, make sure you're actually getting a value from $employee_id.

[zulubanshee]

Not quite bingo. There is a value, and it's being properly set. I just checked it out.

[idfer]

You're missing the "echo" in that statement, the part i bolded in my other post. You can spot problems like this easily if you do a "view source" of the page in your browser.

[zulubanshee]

I did the echo thing but it didn't work. I did find out the problem, or at least a workaround: I took out the $employee_id and put in $row[0] instead and it worked!