Form names & Javascript & PHP

[Anon]

I am working on an email mailer that basically uses HTTP_POST_VARS - grabs the variables and sends them to someone. Simple enough. My question is how long can form names be? For eg:

<INPUT TYPE='text' NAME='supercalafragalisticexpiealadocious' VALUE='atrocious'>

How long can the "supercalafragalisticexpiealadocious" be? There has to be some sort of limit on it?

Since i am letting users choose whatever name they want, this could become relevant. I need the name to be accessible in PHP and Javascript, and of course, HTML.

Thanks a bunch!

[Anon]

A general rule for any text limitations is 255 characters. I am not saying that is a firm answer, but generally, that is a good starting cut off point for most values.

Side note :
And, if I remember correctly, in IE4.0 preService Pack 1, you could actually write code in a URL after the 255 character limit that would be executed on the viewing computer. IE would dump anything after 255 into a text file that it would try to execute when you navigated to it. This has nothing to do with your question, but I remembered it while answering you. 🙂

[fandelem]

for the record, out of my own curiousity, it seems as though form names can be around 28,000 characters long.. if that is any consolation.

personally, kill it after about 100 chars. only super special circumstances would you need over that (who the hell wants to type out/remember 100 char formname anyways)

~kyle