Lunarcafe Does Filters

Method

Make sure the variable is defined $email = "johndoe@doe.com"

This is one method $email = filter_var($email, FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL); Sanitize could have been used instead of validate

Using an Array

Create your array $options = array('min_range' => 1, 'max_range' => 10);. Must use min_range and max_range BTW

Then address your array in the validation script $integer = filter_var($integer,FILTER_VALIDATE_INT, $options); The script will then turn true/false on whatever your variable $integer is if($integer == TRUE) { do some code here};

Flags

Make sure the variable is defined $ip_address = "122.154.91.62";

Create the script $ip_address = filter_var($ip_address, FILTER_VALIDATE_IP, FILTER_FLAG_IPV4); As the table below shows, FILTER_FLAG_IPV4 validates a normal IP address

There are a few more examples below

PHP Filters are a very powerful yet very easy method to use to validate or sanitise form data prior to entering a database. It takes a minimum of code to produce an excellent method of protecting your database.

Notice you can use an array or regex within a formula to determine what gets validated or what values are required. Validations return TRUE/FALSE, Sanitatize returns an action that cleans or removes unwanted characters.

Using filter_var in many cases is a good way of not having to use Regex to validate form input. For instance, it can be used to strip harmful tags out of strings, validate IP address's and numbers. You can validate URL's that need regex's 2 miles long. This is an excellent way to shorten your code and be every bit as effective. Remember if you use SANITIZE_STRING to santize posts or long paragraphs it will strip out any HTML you may have within such as links.