Variable variables

[23.12.2012]

I'm trying to manipulate a POST request, so that I can sanitize a lot of variables with fewer lines. So I've got this code

foreach($_POST as $key => $value) {		$$key = sanitize($_POST[$key]);}

which I want to expand into

$variable = sanitize($_POST['variable']);

I'm not sure if it's achievable, and if it's not, is there a way to accomplish what I want to do? Thanks in advance!

[boen_robot]

Your code pieces do the same thing. It's just that the first works for all variables, while the second works only for a specific variable.The first code piece could actually be written as

foreach($_POST as $key => $value) {	$$key = sanitize($value);}

but that too is equivalent.So... what is it that you want to do really? You have both solutions... are you trying to include/exlude a certain variable from sanitization for whatever reason? If so, you can place a condition within the loop to only apply (or not apply) the sanitization if a condition is met, e.g.

foreach($_POST as $key => $value) {	switch($key) {	case 'variable':	case 'anotherVariable':		//The following is executed only if the $key is one of the cases.		$$key = sanitize($value);	}}

or

foreach($_POST as $key => $value) {	switch($key) {	case 'variable':	case 'anotherVariable':		break;	default:		//The following is executed only if the $key is NOT one of the cases.		$$key = sanitize($value);	}}

[23.12.2012]

I'm sorry, I was missing exactly the point of it. It was doing what I wanted it to do, but I didn't know it was /me dumb. Thanks a lot!

[End User]

I'm curious...do you mind if I ask what sort of sanitize() function you're using?

[23.12.2012]

A custom one, using the built-in trim, strip_tags, stripslahes and mysqli_real_escape_string (the OOP one).

[wirehopper]

You might want to check out: http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.filter-input.php