how to handle dynamic number of POST data

chucklarge

Hello,
I have created a form with a some javascript that replicates some forms inputs as many times as a user needs. here is the site I followed.

My form works correctly and I have used a DOM inspector to make certain that the form fields have a unique 'name' . If you look at the site, you will see that there is the ability to delete any of the added fields, so the name for some fields may not be consective. ie product1, product2, product4, product5 .

so now I need to process the POST data and am trying to figure out the best way to do this.

i might have POST DATA like
POST['date']
POST['name']
POST['product1']
POST['quantity1']
POST['color1']
POST['product4']
POST['quantity4']
POST['color4']
POST['product5']
POST['quantity5']
POST['color5']
POST['product13']
POST['quantity13']
POST['color13']

There could be any number of product, quantity, and color.

Any Ideas?

Thanks,
Chuck

toplay

I'm not sure what you're really looking for more than the basic foreach syntax. Example:

foreach ($_POST as $key => $value) {

echo "Key is: $key and it's value is: $value <br>";

}

Let us know more of what you need.

chucklarge

Hi, Thanks for the reply.

I need to put those fields in a mysql db, grouped by what number it is.
ie
product1, quantity1, color1 will go in its own row.
product4, quantity4, color4 will go in its own row, etc

so unless i am going about this wrong, I can use a foreach loop on the POST data
and and separate the name and number of those three to another array and assign the value, so

$productarray[1][product]=widget99;
$productarray[1][quantity]=34;
$productarray[1][color]=black;
$productarray[4][product]=widget2;
$productarray[4][quantity]=5;
$productarray[4][color]=red;

i could easily iterate through that and input into mysql.

so if that makes sense to do, how can i do something like

foreach ($_POST as $key => $value) {

// if 'product', 'quantity', or 'color' appears in $key , break it up into 2 strings
$productarray[string2][string1] = $value;
}

i am looking at explode and preg_split. maybe one will do what i need it to.

chuck

Weedpacket

Name the form fields things like color[1], product[4], etc. Then you'd have $POST['color'][1], $POST['product'][4], and so on.