Reusing the same form code for creating and editing

[eluser]marcoss[/eluser]
The code is under the GPL

It is just a helper function, no security checks are performed, they are supposed to be done prior the data is used, and of course it is very primitive, so any enhancement is welcomed.

Code:

function field($key = '', $data = '') {
    
        global $CI;
        
        if (is_object($data) && property_exists($data, $key)) :
            $value = $data->$key;
        elseif (is_object($data) && !property_exists($data, $key)) :
            $value = '';
        else:
            $value = $data;
        endif;
        
        $post = $CI->input->post($key);
                
        if($post) :
            return $post;
        elseif ( ($value) && !empty($value) ) :
            return $value;
        else :
            return '';
        endif;
    }