PHP: Unidentified Index with NULL value

Question

I've tried everything but just can't get this notice to disappear.

I have a text input that display's the content of $variable which is being grabbed from a database and either has value of NULL or an integer value.

When the value is NULL, and I use this, I get 1 error of unidentified index.

if(isset($data['variable'])) { $variable = $data['variable']; }
else { $variable = numberFormat($data['variable']); } 

When the value is NULL, and I use this, I get 2 errors of unidentified index.

if($data['variable'] == NULL) { $variable = $data['variable']; } 
else { $variable = numberFormat($data['variable']); }

Can anyone shed some light to how to get rid of these "notices"? Thank you!

Answer 1

You might want to see if the $data variable is available. If that is null, then you can't access an element inside a non-existent variable.

if (isset($data)) {
    if(isset($data['variable'])) { $variable = $data['variable']; }
    else {
        //THIS MAKES NO SENSE. $data['variable'] does not exist.
        //$variable = numberFormat($data['variable']);
        //You can put something else in here, however
        $variable = "";
    } 
}

Secondly, accessing $data['variable'] when it does not exist is non-sensical because... well I doesn't exist!