“Notice: Undefined variable”, “Notice: Undefined index”, and “Notice: Undefined offset” using PHP

Question

I\'m running a PHP script and continue to receive errors like:

Notice: Undefined variable: my_variable_name in C:\\wamp\\www\\mypath\\index.php on line 10

Answer 1

I use all time own useful function exst() which automatically declare variables.

Your code will be -

$greeting = "Hello, ".exst($user_name, 'Visitor')." from ".exst($user_location);


/** 
 * Function exst() - Checks if the variable has been set 
 * (copy/paste it in any place of your code)
 * 
 * If the variable is set and not empty returns the variable (no transformation)
 * If the variable is not set or empty, returns the $default value
 *
 * @param  mixed $var
 * @param  mixed $default
 * 
 * @return mixed 
 */

function exst( & $var, $default = "")
{
    $t = "";
    if ( !isset($var)  || !$var ) {
        if (isset($default) && $default != "") $t = $default;
    }
    else  {  
        $t = $var;
    }
    if (is_string($t)) $t = trim($t);
    return $t;
}

Answer 2

It means you are testing, evaluating, or printing a variable that you have not yet assigned anything to. It means you either have a typo, or you need to check that the variable was initialized to something first. Check your logic paths, it may be set in one path but not in another.

Answer 3

One common cause of a variable not existing after an HTML form has been submitted is the form element is not contained within a <form> tag:

Example: Element not contained within the <form>

<form action="example.php" method="post">
    <p>
        <input type="text" name="name" />
        <input type="submit" value="Submit" />
    </p>
</form>

<select name="choice">
    <option value="choice1">choice 1</option>
    <option value="choice2">choice 2</option>
    <option value="choice3">choice 3</option>
    <option value="choice4">choice 4</option>
</select>

Example: Element now contained within the <form>

<form action="example.php" method="post">
    <select name="choice">
        <option value="choice1">choice 1</option>
        <option value="choice2">choice 2</option>
        <option value="choice3">choice 3</option>
        <option value="choice4">choice 4</option>
    </select>
    <p>
        <input type="text" name="name" />
        <input type="submit" value="Submit" />
    </p>
</form>

Answer 4

In a very Simple Language.
The mistake is you are using a variable $user_location which is not defined by you earlier and it doesn't have any value So I recommend you to please declare this variable before using it, For Example:

---

$user_location = '';
Or
$user_location = 'Los Angles';

---

This is a very common error you can face.So don't worry just declare the variable and Enjoy Coding.

Answer 5

The best way for getting input string is:

$value = filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'value');

This one-liner is almost equivalent to:

if (!isset($_POST['value'])) {
    $value = null;
} elseif (is_array($_POST['value'])) {
    $value = false;
} else {
    $value = $_POST['value'];
}

If you absolutely want string value, just like:

$value = (string)filter_input(INPUT_POST, 'value');

Answer 6

Those notices are because you don't have the used variable defined and my_index key was not present into $my_array variable.

Those notices were triggered every time, because your code is not correct, but probably you didn't have the reporting of notices on.

Solve the bugs:

$my_variable_name = "Variable name"; // defining variable
echo "My variable value is: " . $my_variable_name;

if(isset($my_array["my_index"])){
    echo "My index value is: " . $my_array["my_index"]; // check if my_index is set 
}

Another way to get this out:

ini_set("error_reporting", false)