basic question sorry,
is there a way to make a php variable equal to the input of a HTML form field? like there is in javascript:

var aVariable = document.formName.formFeildName.value;

? ... thanks for any help ... ?

$_POST['varname'] or $_GET['varname'], depending on whether you used POST or GET, will get you the value of the form value 'varname'.

thanks, i'll go and try it now!
:-)

I thought (I think with both POST AND GET) php automatically put the form fields into variables with the same name?

i.e. <input name="hello"> will be put in $hello

That is dependant on the configuration of your PHP install. By default versions < 4.10 (IIRC) do what you said, whereas things after that do not.

You can configure it to do that, but then it makes your code less readable (e.g. if you use $hello, then someone else may wonder where $hello is coming from, whereas $_GET['hello'] tells them that you are getting the variable from GET form data). Also, I believe that it is less secure because you don't know where the variables are coming from. E.g. if you use POST for your form I think (I'm probably wrong) anyone can just override the variables by adding the ?foo=bar&... so that more variables will be sent with GET and override the POST variables. I'm probably backwards on that though.

You are correct. It can mean that your internal variables can be altered (but not if you are a half sensible programmer).

I did that a long time ago when my friend sent me a "friend test" thing. I looked at the form's name for the score, and just put ?score=123123 etc. Thanks for telling me about this, I have PHP 4.1.0 and was unaware of this change.

I was just reading the PHP manual so I know that the setting is Register_Globals in php.ini, if it's on you get $hello, if it's off you have to use $get['hello'].
I'm not sure, but I thought the change was at 4.2.0?

I must of typed the version number in wrong then.

I realise the fall backs perfectly well but it saves me having to get them all the time.

I am in the habit of using comments to explain where ALL my variables come from and what they are for anywayz.