Retired programmer needs another PHP lesson..........Unable to access variables

Hello again....

I am attempting to modify a form in an existing shopping cart package. I have added three input fields, and the data is transferred to the php script and inserted into the database. So far, so good. Reading my trusty manual, it says and I quote "For example, if the NAME attribute of a text box is texbox, the value in this text box will be accessible in PHP as variable $texbox."

In order to double check some additional code, I added "echo" statements to display the contents of my three variables. I get nothing to the screen. I know the "echo" is executed, because I then added a bunch of <br> and the screen does scroll up, but none of the values are shown.

Here is the data entry from the form:
<tr>
<td width="25%" class="tdText"><strong><?php echo "MarkUp Factor:";?></strong></td>
<td><input name="markup" value="<?php if(isset($results[0]['markup'])) echo $results[0]['markup']; ?>" type="text" class="textbox" size="10" /></td>
</tr>

This is the statement from the PHP script that enters the data into the db:
$record["markup"] = $db->mySQLSafe($_POST['markup']);

If I place the following code right after the $record, I get nothing on the screen:
echo $markup ."<br>";

Adding several more br's to the echo does scroll the screen up.

How can I display this value?

Thanks,
Klaus Cook
Houston, Texas

 

print_r($results);

print_r($record);

Does that give you any result?

 

I don't see an assignment for the $markup variable. I suppose you want something like this:

...
// store it in the db
$record["markup"] = $db->mySQLSafe($_POST['markup']);
// assign $markup
$markup=$_POST['markup'];

// now it is assigned we can use it
echo $markup ."<br>";
...

Code (markup):

 

Thanks Kwaku and mvl....your expertise has gotten me a step further down the road. I am now able to get my data into variables and take a look at them.
They print to the screen as follows:
$cost = '55.0'
$retail - '123.0'
$markup2 = 3
$price2 = 0.00

The above list brings up two additional questions:
First, when attempting to multiply $cost * $markup2 (i.e. $price2 = $cost*$markup2) I get a result of 0.00.

Secondly, I want to use the variable "$retail" in an IF Statement, and apprently the string is not being recognized as a value, i.e.:
IF ($retail < "15.00") {
$markup2 = 3.0
}
Do I have to convert these text strings to real (floating) values before I can use them in comparisons or math statements?

Apparently I'm having trouble here learning what php does for you. In my days of Fortran coding I had to "type" everything as float, integer, text, etc. and I knew what to use where. In php I'm not too sure yet.

Thanks,
Klaus Cook

 

This actually works;

<?

$cost = '55.0';
$retail = '12.0';
$markup2 = 5;

if ($retail < "15.00") {
$markup2 = 3.0;
}

$price2 = $cost*$markup2;

echo $price2;

?>

it does what it should do.

But it is not so nice, you rather have;

<?

$cost = 55.0;
$retail = 12.0;
$markup2 = 5;

if ($retail < 15.00) {
$markup2 = 3.0;
}

$price2 = $cost*$markup2;

echo $price2;

?>

Fortran is typed, so you have to say what is what. In php you (for the good and the bad) do not have to; you can do this;

$x = "hello";
$x = 10;
$x = 10.5;
$x = array("x");
$x = new Object;
$x = &$x;

in one statement.

But in PHP you usually don't have to think about it. You can fake it a bit using some kind of coding standard (to your taste; I like unreadable

$int_x = 10;
$str_y = "hello";

 

Thanks for the effort, Kwaku, but the problem persists. Let me show you the section of code. I have added a bunch of "prints" to it to track the variables and the path through the "IF" statements. First section is the code, and after that is the printout. Please take a look and see if you can point me in the right direction
What I really don't understand is the first IF tests '0.00' against 0.00 and the test works properly. In the very next IF I test '123.00' against "10.00" and it does not work. If I change the "10.00" to 10.00 I get the same results.......I guess this is one of those situations which make programming so interesting and challenging........lol.

SECTION OF CODE:
$cost2 = $record["my_price"];
$retail2 = $record["catalog_price"];
$markup2 = $record["markup"];

echo "before IF test<br>";
print_r ($markup2 ."<br>");
print_r ($retail2 ."<br>");
print_r ($cost2 ."<br>");

echo "during IF test<br>";

if ($markup2 == 0.00) {

if($retail2 < "10.00") {
echo $retail2 ." =1<br>";
$markup2 = 3.0;
}
if ($retail2 >="10" && $retail2 <"15") {
echo $retail2 ." =2<br>";
$markup2 = 2.7;
}
if ($retail2 >= "15.00" && $retail2 < "20.00") {
echo $retail2 ." =3<br>";
$markup2 = 2.5;
}
if ($retail2 >= "20.00" && $retail2 < "25.00") {
echo $retail2 ." =4<br>";
$markup2 = 2.3;
}
if ($retail2 >= "25.00" && $retail2 < "35.00") {
echo $retail2 ." =5<br>";
$markup2 = 2.1;
}
if ($retail2 >= "35.00" && $retail2 < "40.00") {
echo $retail2 ." =6<br>";
$markup = 2.0;
}
if($retail2 >= 40.00) {
echo $retail2 ." =7<br>";
$markup2 = 1.8;
}
}
echo "before multiply<br>";
print_r ($markup2 ."<br>");
print_r ($cost2 ."<br>");

$price2 = $cost2*$markup2;

echo "after multiply<br>";
print_r ($markup2 ."<br>");
print_r ($price2 ."<br>");
print_r ($retail2 ."<br>");
print_r ($cost2 ."<br>");

DEBUG PRINTOUT
before IF test
'0.00'
'123.00'
'55.01'
during IF test
'123.00' =1
before multiply
3
'55.01'
after multiply
3
0
'123.00'
'55.01'