Random behaviour with $_POST and form

jakenoble

Hi all.
This code creates a table with 10 random elements in it taken from a database, it also puts in 10 textareas. Each text area has a different name depending on the 'id' of the element taken from the database. The code works fine but when I press submit rather than getting a nice list of "The id for this box is 13,The id for this box is 12,The id for this box is 11 etc". I seem to get this odd behaviour where it prints

The id for this box is 13
The id for this box is 12
The id for this box is 11

The id for this box is 8

The id for this box is 6
The id for this box is 5
The id for this box is 9
The id for this box is 1

Which has randomly missed out the 4th and 6th print lines? But then if I run it again it might be the 9th and 5th prints. It only ever prints out 8 , missing two out and it never prints the full 10.

<form action="as.php" method="post">
	<table width="70%"  border="1">

<?php	
		for ( $i = 0; $i <= 9; $i += 1) {
			$id = $elements[$i]->getQuestionID();
			$query = "SELECT terms.id,terms.keyterm,terms.definition,terms.keywords FROM terms WHERE terms.id = '$id'";
			$result = mysql_query($query);
			$row = mysql_fetch_array($result,MYSQL_ASSOC);
			$keyterm = $row['keyterm'];
			print "<tr><td>KeyTerm is ".$keyterm."<br>Id is ".$id."</td><td>
			<textarea name=\"$id\" cols=\"50\" rows=\"2\">The id for this box is $id</textarea>
			</td></tr>";
		}	
		// If the submit button has been pressed
	if (isset($_POST['submit'])) {
		for ( $j = 0; $j <= 9; $j += 1) {
			$formID = $elements[$j]->getQuestionID(); 
			//$elements[$counter]->setAnswer($_POST['$id']);
			echo $_POST[$formID];
			print "<br>";
		}
   }
?> 

</table>
<input name="submit" type="submit" value="Submit">
</form>

Does anyone have an idea what is wrong with my code?
Thanks, Jake

winged1

before submitting your form, view the browser's source code to see what your form values are. Some browsers to not submit non valued variables.

jakenoble

I have looked at the code, But when you say values do you mean this value

<textarea name=\"$id\" cols=\"50\" rows=\"2\" value=\"The id for this box is $id and the keyterm is $keyterm\"></textarea>

Or do you mean the value in between the textarea tags like this:

<textarea name=\"$id\" cols=\"50\" rows=\"2\">The id for this box is $id and the keyterm is $keyterm</textarea>

I also just tried this with the output of "The id for this box is 10" I also printed out the value of the counter for that for loop in this case its $j. This is the out put:

The id for this box is 10 and the keyterm is Confidence Level

The id for this box is 1 and the keyterm is Above the Line Promotion
1

2
The id for this box is 4 and the keyterm is Bank Overdraft
3
The id for this box is 2 and the keyterm is Absorption Costing
4

5
The id for this box is 12 and the keyterm is Cost Centre
6
The id for this box is 5 and the keyterm is Boston Matrix
7
The id for this box is 11 and the keyterm is Contribution Pricing
8
The id for this box is 6 and the keyterm is Brand
9

Which means it is going through the for loop, as its printing the numbers 0 to 9. But its no assigning the values for some of them?

winged1

the thought was to notice what was the value of the textarea (within your browser) prior to submission , that didn't print to see what, if any relationship you could see.