Var dump from a form after which is converted to current time-CodePudding

I have a PHP time variable that is being Var dump from a html form, after which is being converted to 12 hour time in a tcpdf file "date('h:i a ', strtotime(''))". The if statement I am using to convert the time works well however when the time variable is blank I get the current time. That is not the result I want. When a time is not chosen on the form. I want the end result to be blank. Can someone help me resolve this issue? Thank you.

$da1 is the time variable that's being dump form a separate html file

if ($da1 == ""){$da1 = "";}else {$da1 = date('h:i a ', strtotime($da1));}

CodePudding user response：

First of all you should not check $da1 is fulfilled like you do now. Avoid weak comparison like this.

if($da1 == "")

How are you taking data from the form and put them into $da1 variable? To be safe you could check whether $da1 is empty. If so than you could set it to be just null. I don't get it why you set it as empty string. To be more clear you could invert the if-else. If $da1 is not empty set your time variable, else set is as null.

if (!empty($da1)) {
    $da1 = date('h:i a ', strtotime($da1));
} else {
    $da1 = null;
}

Also to avoid stupid mistakes you should not use the same variable you get your data from a form to work with them rightafter. Also to reduce cyclomatic complexity you could set your time variable as null by default and only set it's value if $da1 exists.

$savedTime = null;

if (!empty($da1)) {
    $savedTime = date('h:i a ', strtotime($da1));
}

PS. Comparing just $da1 value will also be just fine. At all you don't even need to use empty.

if (!$da1) {...