Entries tagged "coding practices"
Remove White Space from Form Data to Avoid Potential Headaches
When processing form submissions, it's important to remove white space before and after each value. Those extra spaces will likely go unnoticed by most visitors, but luckily this won't be a problem most of the time. In some cases, however, those spaces can lead to a lot of confusion. [Continue reading]
Deactivate Code Automatically on a Test Server
When fixing a bug or adding a new feature to a website, it may be beneficial to test the changes on a development server before going live. The problem is that some aspects of the code probably shouldn't be active on the development server. For example, we probably don't Google Analytics tracking any of those visits. The code could be manually disabled during the test phase, but are we going to remember? Instead let's look into automating the process. [Continue reading]
Reuse GET and POST Instead of Duplicating Variables
When reading data from the GET or POST array, why do we assign the information to another variable? Why can't we just use the GET or POST variables? It's not like we unset those variables after the new ones are created. Instead of duplicating variables, consider keeping the ones created for us by PHP. [Continue reading]
Why Does the fetch_array() Function Even Exist?
When looping through a MySQL result set, which function do you use? My preference has always been for the fetch_array() function since it allows access to the data using the database column names. However, is that the most efficient function to use? [Continue reading]
Thoughts from the CyberScorpion.com Redesign
It's finally done. The CyberScorpion Bytes blog has been redesigned! When switching to WordPress a few years back, a pre-made theme was chosen for the design so I could hit the ground running with the blog. It was never the plan to stick with that template. I wanted to build my own. Now that it's done, I wanted to share some thoughts. [Continue reading]
Remove Test Code Quickly with a Simple Dreamweaver Search
Adding test code throughout your scripts may be necessary for troubleshooting or adding new features, but how do you go about removing the code? In a previous post, a few techniques for locating the blocks of test code were discussed, but the code still needs to manually removed. Instead, let's tap into Dreamweaver's search for HTML tag feature. [Continue reading]
Going Live with Incomplete Code; Is It Okay?
Even though it isn't required, should code be left incomplete? For example, the last property/value pair in a CSS declaration doesn't need a semi-colon. The code validates and functions normally. So why worry about that last character? [Continue reading]
Do Single-Quoted Strings Cause More Harm Than Good in PHP?
When writing PHP code, is it better to use single or double quotes? Using single quotes wherever possible will improve the performance of your code, but does it cost too much in productivity when less experienced developers work with the code? After all, certain things won't work as some might expect when using single quotes, such as variables inside the string. [Continue reading]
