Form validation question using arrays

I am doing some basic validation on a form. I am generating an array ($errors[]), populating it with error messages, then echoing the errors out if there are any, or inserting the data into a database if there are no errors.

The result of my code below is that only one of the statements below appears, regardless if I leave both empty. I am just counting the errors, then doing a for loop to increment the number, then reading the array.

It appears that the array is not accumulating the error messages, because if I echo out $nerrors, regardless if both $lastname and $address are left empty, it shows = 1.

What am I doing wrong?

// Set array
$errors = array();

if (empty ($lastname)) {
$errors[] = "You didn't include a Last Name .";
}
elseif (empty ($address)) {
$errors[] = "You didn't include an Address .";
}

// if there were errors, print out an error page and exit
$nerrors = count ($errors);
if ($nerrors > 0) {
print ("<html><head><title>Error</title></head>
<body><p>There were problems with your form. Please go back
to the previous page and correct the following omissions:</p><ul>");
for ($i = 0; $i < $nerrors; $i++) {
print ("<li>" . $errors[$i] . "</li>\n");
print ("</ul>\n</body>\n</html>");
}
}
else {

$sql="INSERT INTO contacts (dateentered, category, type, date, firstname, lastname, organization, address, city, state, county, zip, phone, fax, email, notes) VALUES ('$dateentered', '$category', '$string', '$date', '$firstname', '$lastname', '$organization' , '$address', '$city', '$state', '$county', '$zip', '$phone', '$fax', '$email', '$notes')";

}

 

if (empty ($lastname)) {
$errors[] = "You didn't include a Last Name .";
}
if (empty ($address)) {
$errors[] = "You didn't include an Address .";
}

PHP:

Should do it.

Peace,

 

You should name your errors, just so it's easier to work with them

// Set array
$errors = array();

if (empty ($lastname)) {
$errors['lastname'] = "<p>You didn't include a Last Name.</p>";
}
// here
if (empty ($address)) {
$errors['address'] = "<p>You didn't include an Address.</p>";
}

if(count($errors) > 0) {
// return to form
} else {
// SQL!
}

PHP:

Then you can just return to the form and just echo the specific error above its field.

 

Thank you. I can't believe that I missed a simple thing like that.