$_POST vs. $_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'POST'

Question

Some guy called one of my Snipplr submissions "crap" because I used if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'POST') instead of if ($_POST)

Checking the request method seems more correct to me because that's what I really want to do. Is there some operational difference between the two or is this just a code clarity issue?

Answer 1

Personally I do it the way you have specified

if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'POST')

because surely if you do

if ($_POST)

you would have to check that it is declared first or handle the potential undefined error in some other way.

Answer 2

They both work the same way, but $_POST should be used as it is cleaner. You can add isset() to it to check it exists.

Answer 3

They are both correct. Personally I prefer your approach better for its verbosity but it's really down to personal preference.

Off hand, running if($_POST) would not throw an error - the $_POST array exists regardless if the request was sent with POST headers. An empty array is cast to false in a boolean check.

Answer 4

well -- they don't do the same thing, really.

$_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD']

contains the request method (surprise).

$_POST

contains any post data.
It's possible for a POST request to contain no POST data.

Me, I check the request method -- I actually never thought about testing the $_POST array. I check the required post fields, though. So an empty post request would give the user a lot of error messages. Which makes sense to me.

Answer 5

if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'POST') is the correct way, you can send a post request without any post data.

Answer 6

It's really a 6 of one, a half-dozen of the other situation.

The only possible argument against your approach is $_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'POST' may not be populated on certain web-servers/configuration, whereas the $_POST array will always exist in PHP4/PHP5 (and if it doesn't exist, you have bigger problems (-:)

Answer 7

I know that this is an old question, but here's a "fresh" (and somewhat different than others) answer ;)

I used to check $_POST until I got into a trouble with larger POST data and uploaded files. There are configuration directives post_max_size and upload_max_filesize - if any of them is exceeded, $_POST array is not popullated. So the "safe way" is to check $_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD']. You still have to use isset() on every $_POST variable though, and it does not matter, whether you check or don't check $_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'].

Answer 8

You can submit a form by hitting the enter key (i.e. without clicking the submit button) in most browsers but this does not necessarily send submit as a variable - so it is possible to submit an empty form i.e. $_POST will be empty but the form will still have generated a http post request to the php page. In this case if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'POST') is better.