is there an array built in for html form data ?

[dreardon]

im a perl programmer who just picked up php and i want to know if there is a special array/hash i can access that html form data is dumped into when submitted. or something simliar or a work around for this? in perl, normally i could access the cgi module and hash out all the data sent. what is the equivalent process in php ?

[128kb_com]

With php 4.1+ use the global $POST or $GET arrays wich are similar to a hash in perl. Versions prior to 4.1 use $HTTP_POST_VARS or $HTTP_GET_VARS arrays.

ex.

 if ($_POST['fieldname'] || $_GET['fieldname'])

[gottes_tod]

it depends....

$_POST[$name]
$HTTP_POST_VARS[$name]
$_GET[$name]
$HTTP_GET_VARS[$name]

[dreardon]

ah cool, thanks.

[dreardon]

having an issue looping through the $HTTP_GET_VARS array. essentially what i am trying to do is pass data from html form to php script to output the data. now, i dont want to specify fields in the php script, i just want the script to loop through the array getting key/values and outputting them. this way i can reuse the script on any form....the issue i am having now is that the array is empty when it gets to the php script. is there php i need to implement into the form itself to fill the array? or what am i not doing here?

[gottes_tod]

grep through this code - it will be helpfull

<form>
<input type="text" name="user"><br>
<input type="text" name="pass"><br>
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="submit"><br>
</form>
<?php

function h12()
{
    foreach ($HTTP_GET_VARS as $key => $value)
        echo "<p>$key = $value\n";

echo "<hr>\n";

foreach ($_GET as $key => $value)
    echo "<p>$key = $value\n";
}

foreach ($_GET as $key => $value)
    echo "<p>$key = $value\n";

echo "<hr>\n";

foreach ($HTTP_GET_VARS as $key => $value)
    echo "<p>$key = $value\n";
echo "<hr>\n<hr>\n";

h12();

?>

[dreardon]

well, i am trying to do that but if i just leave the loop in the main code to be executed, it works np. as soon as i put the loop into a function and call it, invalid argument error.

//main code - this works np
foreach ($HTTP_GET_VARS as $key => $value)
{
     echo "<p> $key = $value\n";
}

//this doesnt work - Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() 

h12();

function h12()
{
     foreach ($HTTP_GET_VARS as $key => $value)
     {
          echo "<p> $key = $value\n";
     }
}

😕

[dreardon]

bah, figured it out finally.

h12($HTTP_GET_VARS);

thats what i needed. thanks for yr help

[sarah]

Add $HTTP_GET_VARS as a global...

function h12()
{
global $HTTP_GET_VARS;
     foreach ($HTTP_GET_VARS as $key => $value)
     {
          echo "<p> $key = $value\n";
     }
}

[keith73]

well, i am trying to do that but if i just leave the loop in the main code to be executed, it works np. as soon as i put the loop into a function and call it, invalid argument error.

$HTTP_GET_VARS and $HTTP_POST_VARS are only Global to the script, but not to functions. you don't have to pass them. What you could do is 1 of 2 things.
inside the function, before the loop, declare global $HTTP_POST_VARS

The other option is to use $_POST if your version of PHP supports it. IT is a 'superglobal' and available everywhere without being declared, including functions.

Warning: if you have checkboxes in your form that are the same name (a checkbox group) make sure that in the name attribute for the input tag you include the []. so for example:

<input type="checkbox" name="groupname[]" value="thisvalue">

Then in your php code, either explicitly look for that field or use is_array in the loop that is going through the input.

BTW - I also made the jump from perl to PHP, and I'm liking PHP very much. Pretty easy transition as the 2 languages have a lot in common.

• Keith