I don't understand the part of a method help...

The code below is a method which is part of a class call rating. The bit of code below is just the first part of the OutputRating class I don't understand some of the functions it uses in it. such as addslashes and strlen. I have heard that the magic quotes functions is not necessary any more after php 5. But I think the rest of the code will need an explanation I will greatly appreciate your help.

 public static function OutputRating($varItem)
      {
        // Verify $varItem was provided
        if ($varItem != null && strlen(trim($varItem)) != 0)
        {
          // Check if Magic QUotes is ON
          if (!get_magic_quotes_gpc())
          {
            $varItem = addslashes($varItem);
          }

PHP:

 

strlen : returns the length of a string.
addslashes: puts slashes infront of strange characters such as single qoutes. this makes strings safer to insert in mysql.
trim: just takes away the spaces if they are at the start or end of the string.

by the way, you can always go to
php.net/THE_NAME_OF_THE_FUNCTION_GOES_HERE
ex: php.net/strlen
to check the details of any php function

 

Thank you bro. In this script instead of outing null it could a 0 as well rigth?

 

strlen(trim($varItem)) != 0 i believe they are using 0 at this point because they are checking the length. But they could have used null as well.

 

so doesn't addslashes just do what mysql_escape_string does? which is preferable ?

 

Straight from the manual page :