explode()

[OwenTheSamoan]

I'm using explode in this manner and I am getting the proper array results. This is what I am doing

$eyecolor = $a_row["eyecolor"]; 
$arr_words = explode(',',$eyecolor); // explodes $str_text on 
print_r($arr_words); 

Array ( [0] => Brown [1] => Blue [2] => Violet [3] => Grey [4] => Black [5] => Green [6] => Hazel )

My question is , how do I get the array to to state the name of the array and not say "array"?:

I want it to say:
eyecolor ( [0] => Brown [1] => Blue [2]

NOT

array ( [0] => Brown [1] => Blue [2]

Thanks to anyone who can help.

[Thora_Fan]

You know, I never had thought about doing that until I read this post, however I don't believe you can do that. I could be wrong however

[OwenTheSamoan]

I was assuming this was the way to go. I could be wrong. Let me tell you what I am trying to do, maybe you have an answer.

When a person fills out a multiple select form you would put [] after name in the form.

name[]

this way the script that is getting this is expecting an array. I already have the array stored in my database in one field and what I want to do is call up this array and send it to a "select" script to do a search. What would be the best way to break up the array so that it simulates just coming from a form?
Thanks.

[Thora_Fan]

Are you trying to take an array (from your database, or wherever) and turn it into a drown down menu or a bunch of checkboxes?

[OwenTheSamoan]

something like that. I want to take the array from the database and have it mimic coming from a checkbox form

[Thora_Fan]

Alright, well, assuming your array has a numeric index, you could put it into a simple for loop. If it's associative indexed, then you would use a foreach loop.

$myArray = array("one", "two", "three");
for($i=0; $i<=count($myArray)-1; $i++)
{
   echo "<input type=\"checkbox\" value=\"$myArray[$i]\">$myArray[$i]\r";
}

This is, assuming you want the value of the checkbox to be whatever the value of the array element is. Not really sure if this is what you are after, though.

[OwenTheSamoan]

Not exactly. What I did exactly is this. A user will fill out a search form. This search form is sent to a "select * from" script and a search is then done. At the same time, I took the info from the search(checkbox) form and saved it as arrays in the database. What I want to be able to do is call up these arrays and the values will go automatically to the same script as before and do the same search without having to fill out the form(checkbox) again.
I may not have explained this too well. I do appreciate you trying to help.

[zak]

i'm not really sure of what you're after but i think you may mean this:

you have (for example) a set of 10 checkboxes, of which 4 have to be checked. you will then save the value of the checked boxes as a string in the database. so the string might be:

string_1,string_2,string_3,string4

to get this into an array do the following:

$string = "string_1,string_2,string_3,string4";

$myArr = explode(",", $string);

//presuming you know the order of the array
$argument1 = $myArr[0];
$argument2 = $myArr[1];
$argument3 = $myArr[2];
$argument4 = $myArr[3];

//then simply redirect to the search page with a query on the URI
//N.B. There must be no output before this header()

header("Location: search.php?arg1=$argument1&arg2=$argument2&arg3=$argument3&arg4=$argument4");

This isn't the most eloquent way of doing it but it illustrates the point.
I hope this is what you meant and that it helps.

-Zak.

[OwenTheSamoan]

You got the idea, this is exactly what I want to do. First of all thanks for the reply.
Couple of questions about this.

I have some check box fields with 20 checkboxes. Does this mean I have to number all the string and arrays like you did here? What if all were not checked off by the user? Will this throw off the count and mess everything up?

$string = "string_1,string_2,string_3,string4";

$myArr = explode(",", $string);

//presuming you know the order of the array
$argument1 = $myArr[0];
$argument2 = $myArr[1];
$argument3 = $myArr[2];
$argument4 = $myArr[3];

Also instead of numbering the string couldn't I do something like this:

$eyecolor = $a_row["eyecolor"];
$arr_words = explode(',',$eyecolor);

I then get them numbered as they went into the database like here. Is this totally wrong?

Array ( [0] => Brown [1] => Blue [2] => Violet [3] => Grey [4] => Black [5] => Green [6] => Hazel )

Hope I'm making sense. Thanks for the help.

[zak]

I'm not quite sure what you mean, sorry. Could you post the HTML you are using here please? Could you also post what you want the string which is entered into the database to look like? Can you give an example?