Interesting PHP checking variables containing a hyphen

[Mark Crisell]

Hi,

This is more of a heads-up than a request for help.

Basically, I'm showing some graphical content (other products) based on the Section currently being shown.

I've got a block containing this:

    $currentsection = "<actinic:variable name="SectionName" />"; 

And then a bit lower down it does this:

if     ($currentsection == "Birthdays") {
       [Go and do something]
} 

I do this quite merrily and all is working well. However, there is one section called "Ages 10 - 80". And for everything I've tried it will not pass through this "IF" successfully:

if     ($currentsection == "Ages 10 - 80") {
       [Go and do something]
} 

However, if I change the name of the section to "Ages 10 to 80" (i.e. replace the hyphen with the word 'to' and change the IF statement accordingly) then it works fine. I wonder if it is applying the calculation "10 - 80" or something? (I even checked if $currentsection == "Ages -70"!).

[NormanRouxel]

The problem isn't in the IF, it's in the Actinic variable.

Use:

$currentsection = '<actinic:variable name="SectionName" encoding="perl" selectable="false" />';

Note that the single quotes are essential too.

As you had it, Actinic would be generating something like Ages 10 &#nn 80 as it escapes all special characters before outputting them to the HTML. I.e. so that Ages < 10 would not inadvertantly start an HTML tag.

[Mark Crisell]

Ahhhh.... thank you! I'm enlightened

[Mark Crisell]

Have changed it following your advice. Many thanks!