PHP troubles

I'm not quite sure where to post this, but if anyone with some PHP knowledge could help me out, I'd appreciate it.

I have mod_rewrite set to redirect in this manner:

domain.com/page/action => domain.com/index.php?page=$1&action=$2

I also added an extra rule to handle a request with no $action
ie. domain.com/page => domain.com/index.php?page=$1
(not sure if this was necessary..I've tried it both ways..)

Now, whenever I try to request a $page without an $action, it appears that the variables aren't even set.

To be clearer:

<?php
$page = $_GET['page'];
$action = $_GET['action'];
?>

When I access a page with both a page and an action, ie. domain.com/page/action/, everything works fine and both variables get the proper values. Without an action, the varibles are set as follows:

$page is empty
$action is index.php

What I want is for $page to be set, and $action to be empty.

I'm pulling my hair out over this. Can someone help me?

Woot! I figured it out. Sorry to bother you guys.

Admins, you may delete this if you want.

Rather than delete, please share your fix. It may help others.

brittany46 said:

Rather than delete, please share your fix. It may help others.

Click to expand...

Good point. I had actually thought about that, then I got lazy.

Originally, I had the following rewrite rules in my .htaccess:

RewriteRule ^([^/]*)/$ /index.php?page=$1
RewriteRule ^([^/]*)/([^/]*)/$ /index.php?page=$1&action=$2 [L]

For some reason, it wouldn't work like that, but if I simply did them in descending order (2-1), it worked:

RewriteRule ^([^/]*)/([^/]*)/$ /index.php?page=$1&action=$2
RewriteRule ^([^/]*)/$ /index.php?page=$1 [L]

I don't know enough about mod_rewrite to say WHY it's like this, but perhaps it will help someone. (Thanks for spurring me into action, brittany46 )

PS. An admin might also think of renaming this to mod_rewrite troubles .. ?

thanks theprovider777 for posting your solution. every little bit helps towards understanding this game.

Yes, Thank You. Rep added.