passing arrays in HTML form

PhilVaz

I am doing an apartment site for a guy using PHP, with a flat text file (I haven't learned MySQL yet). I want to allow up to 40 apts, up to 12 rooms each, each room has a price, a status (vacant or occupied), a description, a pet status, etc. A couple of fields like that, nothing huge.

My problem is trying to figure out how to use a PHP array passed through an HTML form. In other words, I want to pass an array with type = hidden. For example, instead of

print" < input type='hidden' name='A' value='$A' >";
print" < input type='hidden' name='B' value='$B' >";
print" < input type='hidden' name='C' value='$C' >";
print" < input type='hidden' name='D' value='$D' >";

I want to do this using a PHP array -- e.g. $T = array(3000)

print" < input type='hidden' name='T[1]' value='$T[1]' >";
print" < input type='hidden' name='T[2]' value='$T[2]' >";
print" < input type='hidden' name='T[3]' value='$T[3]' >";
print" < input type='hidden' name='T[4]' value='$T[4]' >";

Since I have 40 apts x 12 rooms each x 6 vars associated with each room = approx 3000 variables, if I can use an array I can specify a for loop and pass all the variables in one line in the loop -- e.g. $T[$i]. But I'm pretty sure the above T[1] T[2] ... $T[$i] etc won't work since arrays can't be specified in the HTML input name = field. Or can they?

So how can I pass this information as an array without naming each variable separately. Hope that's clear. I'm not that experienced with PHP and maybe there is an easier way to do this.

Phil P

laserlight

you can use arrays that way

e.g.

echo '<input type="hidden" name="T[1]" value="' . $T[1] . '">';

though you would then access using $_POST['T']['1']

or more likely use [man]foreach/man to loop through the data set.

PhilVaz

Thanks much. I wasn't sure about passing arrays. Saves me a lot of typing being able to use arrays. I was naming the vars individually but now he wants up to 40 apts....or 3000 text vars.

Phil P

cosminb

You can impode-it and then explode-it. And I recomend using POST because of the maximum length limit of the urls.

Lets'say you want to pass tha array $arr

<?php
$string=implode($arr,'-');
?>

  <form action="" ...>
    <input type="hidden" name="name" value="<?php ehco $string?>">
 ....
</form>

and after that in your destination script:

$arr=explode($_POST['name'],'-');

you can find more ino about implode() and explode() on www.php.net

PhilVaz

Ah, using explode/implode even better. Heard of those but haven't looked up how to use them. Thanks again. Glad people in here are up at 4 am EST.

Phil P

cosminb

Glad to help
Make sure the delimitator '-' is not contained by one of your array elements

cosminb

Or, you could use sessions, but this is a little bit more complicated

PhilVaz

<< Or, you could use sessions >>

Ah, you mean "cookies." Yeah, haven't learned that yet. I'm gonna master my implode/explode array thingy with a flat text file, then write my Quake/Doom game with sessions in PHP later. Hee hee. I frequent GameDev.net, my games site is here

http://www.bringyou.to/games/

Phil P

cosminb

No, no, no
Sessions and cookies are two different things, but i'll guess you'll find that later