PHP - exit(), die(), return, does not stop INSERT script from executing

I am trying to exit a script if a date is found from database with an if statement.

However when the date is found (which works) and I use either an exit(); or die(); or return or even throw an exception, it doesn't stop the following INSERT statement from running, & I end up with a new entry in the DB which I don't want. I just can't figure it out, every question I've found here says exit(); or die(); should work.

I've tried moving the curly bracket to the bottom of this page but it still runs the INSERT statement.

The main culprit is in-between /*/////////////////88888888888\\\\\\\\\*/ with the INSERT after it.

Here's my code accumulated from this site:

$servername = "localhost:3308";  $username = "root";  $password = "";  $dbname = "datepicker_test_outputs";    // Create connection  $conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);  // Check connection  if ($conn->connect_error) {      die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);  }    $sql = "SELECT date FROM bookings";  $result = $conn->query($sql);    if ($result->num_rows > 0) {      $for_JS_date = null;        // output data of each row      while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {                    $php_array_dates = date('Y-m-d',strtotime($row["date"]));                    $for_JS_date .= "'".$php_array_dates."'".",";                        $correct_date_format = substr($for_JS_date, 0, -1);      }              if($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"]=="POST"){        $start_date = $_POST["from"];          $end_date = $_POST["to"];      $caravan = $_POST["caravan"];            $dateentry = array();                // populate $dateentry array with dates          while (strtotime($start_date) <= strtotime($end_date)) {              $dateentry[] =  date("Y-m-d", strtotime($start_date));              $start_date = date ("Y-m-d", strtotime("+1 day", strtotime($start_date)));          } // end while            // loop through $dateentry and insert each date into database          foreach($dateentry as $entry) {              /*/////////////////88888888888\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\*/              $string = $correct_date_format;              $word  = $entry;                if(strpos($string, $word) !== false){                  echo "BINGO! IT WAS FOUND '$word'";                  echo "<p style='color:red;'>" . $correct_date_format . "</p>";                  /*  header("Location: re_direct_page.php");                          return;                          die();                          throw new Exception('An Error Ocurred');*/                  exit();              }else{                  echo "The word '$word' was not found in the given string";                }              /*/////////////////88888888888\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\*/                            $my_inserted_dates =("INSERT INTO bookings               (date,caravan_id)  VALUES('$entry', '$caravan')")                      or die(mysqli_error());                  $result = mysqli_query($conn,$my_inserted_dates);      }          if($result == false)          {              echo "<script>alert('BOOKING IS NOT SUCCESS - PLEASE CONTACT ADMINISTRATOR');   </script>";          }          else          {              /* Header location to refresh the page & load booked dates */              header('Location: '.$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']);          } die();      // end foreach      }  }  

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/67352356/php-exit-die-return-does-not-stop-insert-script-from-executing May 02, 2021 at 09:53AM