How to use sha256 in php5.3.0

Could this be a typo? (two Ps in ppasscode, intended?)

$_POST['ppasscode'];

I would make sure and do:

print_r($_POST);

and make sure the data is accurate there, and then echo out what it should look like:

echo hash('sha256', $_POST['ppasscode']);

Compare this output to what you have in the database (manually). By doing this you’re exploring your possible points of failure:

1. Getting password from form
2. hashing the password
3. stored password
4. comparison of the two.