If $variable = 0 not working

Question

if($_POST['user_admin'] = 0){ $acct_type = "a standard"; }
elseif($_POST['user_admin'] = 1){ $acct_type = "an administrator"; }
echo $acct_type;
echo $_POST['user_admin'];

Whether $_POST['user_admin'] is 0 or 1, $acct_type still returns "an administrator" Why?

Replace `=` with `==` .... also look at http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.operators.comparison.php — Baba, Nov 07 '12 at 00:20
possible duplicate of [The 3 different equals](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2063480/the-3-different-equals) — mario, Nov 07 '12 at 00:35
Thanks! Sometimes you miss something after you've been staring at it for 10 minutes... — GiantDuck, Nov 07 '12 at 00:36

score 10 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 07 '12 at 00:24

10

You need to use "==" when comparing variables.

if($_POST['user_admin'] == 0){ $acct_type = "a standard"; }
elseif($_POST['user_admin'] == 1){ $acct_type = "an administrator"; }
echo $acct_type;
echo $_POST['user_admin'];

answered Nov 07 '12 at 00:24

Tim Dearborn

1,178
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score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 07 '12 at 00:22

6

It should be

if $variable == 0

answered Nov 07 '12 at 00:22

Ian

181
10

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 07 '12 at 01:05

2

you are assigning value with = you should use $variable == 0 to compare the value

edited Nov 07 '12 at 01:05

Joseph Quinsey

9,553
10
54
77

answered Nov 07 '12 at 00:46

admoghal

1,498
1
10
5

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 07 '12 at 00:32

You are on the first of 10 common PHP mistakes to avoid :-)

   $_POST['user_admin'] = 0 
   $_POST['user_admin'] = 1

are both assignments. PHP evaluates whether the final assigned expression is true or false after assigning the value to $_POST['user_admin'] . So, the first one will evaluate to false since the assigned value is 0, and the second one will evaluate to true since the assigned value is 1.

As everyone pointed out, you have to use "==" instead of "=" for conditional statements.

If $variable = 0 not working

4 Answers4