alternative excerpt if doesn't have excerpt

Under what conditions would a post have no excerpt?

I don’t really get the question?! if I don’t insert excerpt to a post,
then it has no excerpt (I mean it’s blank, of course you can have it
add the automatic excerpt, but wp knows that field is empty in that post).

So you’re talking about the optional manual excerpt – not the automatic excerpt? Your original post wasn’t clear and the devil is always in the details.

oh sorry! I edited that now!

try:

<?php
if($post->post_excerpt == ''){
// no excerpt
} else {
// excerpt
}
?>

Try something like:

if( $post->post_excerpt ) : the_excerpt();
else:
[your code]
endif;

but how do I put the other php’s in that (get excerpt, get custom field)?

Lets say I wanted to be if there is one: show it,
if there isn’t show:
” this post is <custom field content here> and has the <custom field content here>
in it. ”

try it with something like this:

<?php
  if( $post->post_excerpt) :
    the_excerpt();
  else : ?>
<?php
  $first = get_post_meta( $post->ID , 'first', true);
  $second = get_post_meta( $post->ID , 'second', true);
  if($first && $second) : ?>
    <p>this post is <?php echo $first; ?> and has the <?php echo $second; ?>
in it.</p>
<?php endif; ?>
<?php endif; ?>

I got it working in the end with a similar code:

<?php if ( ! has_excerpt() ) {
            $name = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'name', true);
            $experience = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'experience', true);
            echo "owns a company named $name with a  $experience years of experience";
            } else {
            the_excerpt();
            }?>

Thank’s!!!!

The real complicated (to me ?? thing I wanna do now is that:

in that alternativ text i want to insert the age of a person,
weich will be automatically calculated by getting is year, month and day
of birth from three custom fields i have with those details.

Is that a crazy thinking or is it possible ?

Try it with this:

<?php
$birthDate =array();
$birthDate[] = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'month', true);
$birthDate[] = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'day', true);
$birthDate[] = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'year', true);
$birthDate = array_filter($birthDate);
//get age from date or birthdate
if(!empty($birthDate)) {
$age = (date("md", date("U", mktime(0, 0, 0, $birthDate[0], $birthDate[1], $birthDate[2]))) > date("md") ? ((date("Y")-$birthDate[2])-1):(date("Y")-$birthDate[2]));
echo "Age is:".$age;
}
?>

Wow amazing!!! works great! and it will be always up to date right?!

Thank’s again and again!!!

Yes, but make this alteration:

Change this:

if(!empty($birthDate)) {

to this:

if(!empty($birthDate) && (count($birthDate) == 3)) {

This will ensure that if the birthdate is not complete it will not show it

if I change it it makes an error:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ‘;’ in /home/bentalgad/MySites/guitara.co.il/wp-content/themes/mguitara/single_teacher.php on line 26

This is my working code:

<?php
$birthDate =array();
$birthDate[] = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'month', true);
$birthDate[] = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'day', true);
$birthDate[] = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'year', true);
$birthDate = array_filter($birthDate);
//get age from date or birthdate
if(!empty($birthDate) && (count($birthDate) == 3)) {
$age = (date("md", date("U", mktime(0, 0, 0, $birthDate[0], $birthDate[1], $birthDate[2]))) > date("md") ? ((date("Y")-$birthDate[2])-1):(date("Y")-$birthDate[2]));
echo "Age is:".$age;
}
?>