Wrong form value when using variables

[mmoranuk]

I am having an issue with a form and some php variables. It works fine using literals but not variables.

The code that doesn't work is:

$j = $num_possible_answers ;
for ($i = 1; $i <=$j; $i++) {
echo "
<tr><td><div align=\"center\">
<input type=\"radio\" name=\"correct_answer$i\" value=\"$i\">
</div></td>
<td><input name=\"answer$i\" type=\"text\"
id=\"answer$i\" size=\"50\"></td></tr>";
}

This is then posted to another page. The value I want for answer $i is the value entered in the text box on the form. The one I get is just the value of $i.

When I use literals (and no loop) I get the value I want, eg:
if ($num_answers == 2) {

echo "
<tr><td><div align=\"center\">
<input type=\"radio\" name=\"correctanswer\" value=\"a\"></div></td>
<td><input name=\"answer1\" type=\"text\" id=\"answer1\" size=\"50\"></td></tr>
<tr><td><div align=\"center\">
<input type=\"radio\" name=\"correctanswer\" value=\"b\">
</div></td>
<td><input name=\"answer2\" type=\"text\" id=\"answer2\" size=\"50\"></td></tr>";
}

Am I doing something stupid or is there an issue with using variables in this scenaio. Thanks in advance, Mark.

[TheDefender]

Post the part of the code where the form is actually processed... Also, where is $num_possible_answers being defined?

[mmoranuk]

In response to your questions:

$num_possible_answers is being posted to this page from a previous one and comes through as the correct value, eg, 4.

I have this as the form wrapper:

<form name=\"form1\" method=\"post\" action=\"multichoice2.php\">
...code...
<input type=\"submit\" name=\"Submit\" value=\"Next\"></form>

then multichoice2.php receives the values from the form.
I then try to insert it in a db (which works fine). Its just that the values are wrong. They come as the value of $i, not the text that was entered in the form. I can show this by doing:
echo "$answer$i" ;

HOWEVER, I have just had a small breakthrough using the following code:

echo "Firstly, the answer is $answer1";
// this gives the correct answer, ie, the text from the form box

for ($k = 1; $k<=$num_possible_answers; $k++) {
echo "The answer is $answer$k....";
//this gives the wrong answer, ie, 1, (or value of $k)

Looks like it is some sort of pointer issue. I'm not sure how this should work in PHP. So I could solve the problem by handwriting all the variable names but I would like to put it in one simple loop as above. Any ideas? (thanks)

[tsinka]

Hi,

try this:

for ($k = 1; $k<=$num_possible_answers; $k++) { 
  $ans = "answer$k";

  if (isset($_POST[$ans]))
     echo "The answer is ".$_POST[$ans]."<br>\n";
}

I'd suggest to change the input names so that the data is submitted as array.

Thomas

[mmoranuk]

Thanks Tsinka - that works fine.

Its dead simple when I look at it now :-)

I'll definitely look at arrays when I get the time. I am just trying to get an old piece of code working at the moment.

Thanks again, Mark.