checking loops and validating info

rakennedy75

I am passing values in an array from checkboxes in a form...
quick example:

<input type="checkbox" name="optionArray[]" value="tv (1)">
<input type="checkbox" name="optionArray[]" value="tv (2)">

So it passes the values checked by the user in an array. This works fine. The question I have is that I have multiple checkboxes (such as the one above with an option for tv(1) or tv(2) or tv(3)). I want to force them to choose one of these. I can use radio buttons but the problem is that there are numerous other values that I want them to choose as well. This is also going to be set up dynamically by a designer so it makes it difficult to use a combination of check boxes and radio buttons. What I need is a loop to check to make sure that if there is a tv(1) and a tv(2) than it will prompt the user to only choose one of these. I hope this makes sense, if not, I can clerify it later.

So each instance of the array ($optionArray[$i]) is checked against the value of the next to make sure they follow my arguments. In the end there should only be one of these values listed and if they try and choose another I can send them back a prompt or error message.

I hope I explained this clearly enough.
Thanks for your time.

devinemke

not sure i totally understand. you want the user to only choose one of the checkboxes (and you don't want to user radio buttons)?

if (count($_POST['optionArray'] > 1)) {echo 'ERROR: You can only choose one checkbox!';}

rakennedy75

I was afraid my explanation was confusing. I have a dozen or so checkboxes which are basically options/amenities for a condo. TV, VCR, sofabed, dishwasher, etc. Some of these have duplicates like the TV (sometimes up to three). So the way I am getting the information from the previuos developer is in the form of tv(1), tv(2), tv(3). I want all the checkboxes to be able to be chosen. The check boxes that have duplicates like the TV and VCR I want to validate against eachother. So the user can only select either tv(1), tv(2) or tv(3) but can check all the other boxes like sofa beds, dishwasher, etc. If they choose submit and have more than one of the tv options, I will send an error message back.

What I need to know is when they submit, how do I get the array to step through its values and make sure there is not more than one of the options for the tv. Hopefully this will clear up what I am trying to accomplish.

Thanks again for your time and replies.

devinemke

there are several ways to do this. the quickest and most obvious way is to hard code exactly what you are trying to do just for the TV's:

$count = 0;
foreach ($_POST['optionArray'] as $value)
{
	if (strstr ($value, 'tv')) {$count++;}
}
if ($count > 1) {echo 'you can only select one of the TV choices!';}

if you want a more flexible solution (say if you have multiple sets of checkboxes that you need to validate the same way) then i would say create subarray for each set:

<input type="checkbox" name="optionArray['tv']" value="1">
<input type="checkbox" name="optionArray['tv']" value="2">

then you can just check the contents of $_POST['optionArray']['tv'] for the right number.

another solution is to just use a plain text field and ask the user how TV's they want (and put what the maximum allowed is). You could use a validation routine to make sure they don't enter a number out of that range.

rakennedy75

Thanks for the different solutions. I think the middle is the best for my purposes. I haven't really worked with multi-dimensional arrays yet but this might be a good time to give it a try. Thanks again for the help.