On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 12:47, Gary <gpaul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > I have an email message > > $msg = 'Name: $fname ' . ' $lname\n' > . "Phone: $phone\n" > . "Email: $email\n" > > and it works fine, however in this message there are about 30 variables that > are being called...as such > > . "Order: beefschnitzel $beefschnitzel\n" > . "Order: beefstrips $beefstrips\n" > . "Order: cheesesausage $cheesesausage\n" > . "Order: crumbedsausage $crumbedsausage\n" > . "Order: chucksteak $chucksteak\n" > . "Order: cornedbeef $cornedbeef\n" > . "Order: dicedsteak $dicedsteak\n" > . "Order: filletmignon $filletmignon\n" > > I want to only send the message if the submitter enters an amount in the > form for the corresponding variable, instead of having a bunch of empty > messages. So I have been trying to use the empty() function as such: > > . if empty($beefolives){''} elseif (isset($beefolives)) { 'Order: beefolives > $beefolives\n'} > > But I am getting the error > > Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_IF > > Can someone point me in the right direction? That's because you're concatenating. When appending to a variable, you can't use constructs and conditions, unless using ternaries: . (!empty($beefolives) && is_numeric($beefolives) ? 'Order: beefolives '.$beefolives : null) However, for readability and ease of management, you might want to try something like this. It makes at least two assumptions: you're using a form post, and you understand that it's untested (as I'm just typing it here into the body of this email). <?php // If we've posted our order if (isset($_POST) && is_array($_POST['order'])) { // Instantiate the $order variable $order = null; // Iterate the order quantities foreach ($_POST['order'] as $k => $v) { // If the field is set and the amount is a number if (isset($v) && is_numeric($v)) { $order .= 'Order: '.$k.': '.$v.PHP_EOL; } } /** * Note: in your example, you used single (literal) * quotes and included the variables. That would * literally print $fname and $lname. */ $msg = 'Name: '.$_POST['fname'].' '.$_POST['lname'].PHP_EOL; $msg .= 'Phone: '.$_POST['phone'].PHP_EOL; $msg .= 'Email: '.$_POST['email'].PHP_EOL; $msg .= PHP_EOL; $msg .= $order; // And then handle the rest of your processing. Here, we just echo. echo '<pre>'.PHP_EOL.$msg.'</pre>'.PHP_EOL; } ?> <form method="post" action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>"> First Name: <input type="text" name="fname" id="fname"><br/> Last Name: <input type="text" name="lname" id="lname"><br/> Phone: <input type="text" name="phone" id="phone"><br/> Email: <input type="text" name="email" id="email"><br/> <br /> <h3>Order</h3> Beef Schnitzel: <input type="text" name="order[beefschnitzel]" id="order[beefschnitzel]" size="2" maxlength="3"><br/> Beef Strips: <input type="text" name="order[beefstrips]" id="order[beefstrips]" size="2" maxlength="3"><br/> Cheese Sausage: <input type="text" name="order[cheesesausage]" id="order[cheesesausage]" size="2" maxlength="3"><br/> Crumbed Sausage: <input type="text" name="order[crumbedsausage]" id="order[crumbedsausage]" size="2" maxlength="3"><br/> Chuck Steak: <input type="text" name="order[chucksteak]" id="order[chucksteak]" size="2" maxlength="3"><br/> Corned Beef: <input type="text" name="order[cornedbeef]" id="order[cornedbeef]" size="2" maxlength="3"><br/> Diced Steak: <input type="text" name="order[dicedsteak]" id="order[dicedsteak]" size="2" maxlength="3"><br/> Filet Mignon: <input type="text" name="order[filletmignon]" id="order[filletmignon]" size="2" maxlength="3"><br/> <!-- NOTE: "Filet" as displayed on the form has one 'L', but the variable is unchanged. --> <br /> <input type="submit" value="Order Now"> </form> -- </Daniel P. Brown> Dedicated Servers, Cloud and Cloud Hybrid Solutions, VPS, Hosting (866-) 725-4321 http://www.parasane.net/ -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php