How to avoid 'undefined index' errors? [duplicate]

Answer 1

You can use isset() without losing the concatenation:

//snip
$str = 'something'
 . ( isset($output['alternate_title']) ? $output['alternate_title'] : '' )
 . ( isset($output['access_info']) ? $output['access_info'] : '' )
 . //etc.

You could also write a function to return the string if it is set - this probably isn't very efficient:

function getIfSet(& $var) {
    if (isset($var)) {
        return $var;
    }
    return null;
}

$str = getIfSet($output['alternate_title']) . getIfSet($output['access_info']) //etc

You won't get a notice because the variable is passed by reference.