Problem with PHP and HTML forms

[hiteshkapadia]

Hi,

I am using the HTML variables on the PHP form in a loop. When I submit the form I want to validate the form before posting it and then after posting insert the values into the database. Suppose my HTML variable name is answer, then if I give the variable name as answer[$i] where i is my increment variable then I am not able to use answer variable in the javascript for validation. If I give the variable name as answer$i then my PHP script is not able to identify the answer variable. I can give the HTML variable name as answer[], but if I have a radio button where two options are available and I have given the HTML variable name as answer[] then for both the radio buttons the variable name is different. I cannot access both radio buttons with one name. Can anybody tell me how to overcome this problem?

Hitesh

[subrata]

hi,
i also faced this problem. i used answer$i style. accessed them in the action page using variable variables using loops along with a counter (passed in hidden field). For java script part i generated the validating javascript for each set of answer$i using loop and counter by PHP. obvious you have to know the counts beforehand.

regards
subrata paul

[matto]

two options:

1. name the input field arrays answer_1, answer_2 etc. this can be treated as a pseudo-array by php, i.e. you can process it in a loop as if it were an array. use variable variables:

HTML FORM:

<input type=hidden name=total value=2>
(in this case you must tell the script that you post to, how many fields it shall process, as count() only works on arrays)

<input type=text name=answer_1>
<input type=text name=answer_2>

do the validity check with javascript. javascript has no problem with names like "answer_1".

then, in PHP:

$answer = array();
for($i=1; $i<=$total; $i++)
{
array_push($answer, ${"answer_".$i});
}

now you've got your array answer[].

2. in order to be independant from (client-side) javascript, you could do the validity check server-side, i.e. via PHP. (I prefer this!)

HTH

[hiteshkapadia]

Hi,

Thanks Subrata. I am trying to use answer$i as the variable name in HTML. I know the count of the variable. But on the posted page in PHP I am not able to access the variable answer$i. Can you please let me know how to access answer$i in PHP. If I try to use $answer . $i, it only gives me the value of $i and not the entire value.

Thanks again.

Hitesh

[subrata]

hi,
try this
for($i=0;$i<=count;$i++)
{
$myanswer="answer" . $i;
echo $$myanswer;
}
here the variable variable $$myanswer holds the value for the corresponding answer $i.
hope this will solve the problem.

regards
subrata