[RESOLVED] best way to approach this?

[JD_]

im going to have a form on my website that will have multiple dropdowns its for a fan selector , there are 9 fans available but i need to find out which one's will fit there needs by them selecting from the 3 dropdowns.

dropdown 1
dropdown 2
dropdown 3

after which links to the various fans that might there needs are presented.

ive tried using arrays (with 9 values and deleting ones depending on which option they picked) but it didn't work. anyone got any ideas?, i know how to do all of the other stuff and form stuff i just need a way to work this out without typing out all of the 100+ possiblities with if statements.

[bpat1434]

I'd say, start a session. Store the posted info in the session, then populate the drop-downs accordingly....

Alternatively you can use the $_GET array and pass the info through the URL. Either way will work as good as the other.

[JD_]

i know what your saying but , for example, here is how it works so far for 2 dropdowns.

user selects option 2 from the first dropdown

$option1=2

user selects option 3 from the second dropdown

$option2=3

so those options get passed to the final page and in the final.php

i have:

$fanarray = array('1','2','3','4','5','6','7','8','9');
if ($option1 == 2) { unset($fanarray[0],$fanarray[1],$fanarray[3],$fanarray[4],$fanarray[8]); }

as only fans 3 6 7 8 are suitable for that option

the problem is on $option2 i need to remove the various values but as though it was from a full array of 1-9. if that makes sense.

if ($option2 == 3) { unset($fanarray[1],$fanarray[2],$fanarray[3],$fanarray[4],$fanarray[8]); }

as only fans 1 6 7 8 are suitable for that option

therefore i need to get rid of fan 3 from the first option so the end result should be , 1 6 7 8.

[bpat1434]

Are you using different lists? Like option 1 is the CPU manufacturer (Intel, AMD, Motorola), option 2 is the pin-type (939, Socket A), and option 3 would be the fan model?

If so, why not just structure your array properly (and not acutally mess with it):

$fanarray = array(
  'amd' => array(
    'socket' => array(
      '939' => array('fan 1', 'fan 2', 'fan 3', 'fan 4'),
      'Socket A' => array('fan 5', 'fan 6', 'fan 7')
    )
  ),
  'intel' => array(
    'socket' => array(
      '939' => array('fan 8', 'fan 9'),
      'Socket A' => array('fan 10', 'fan 11')
    )
  )
);

Then, you can just do:

<?php

if(isset($_POST['option1']))
{
  $fantype = ($_POST['option1']==1)?'amd':'intel';

  echo '<select name="option2">';
  foreach($fanarray[$fantype] as $socket => $fan)
  {
    // Print out option 2:
    echo '<option value="'.$socket.'">'.$socket.'</option>';
  }
  echo '</select>';
}

if(isset($_POST['option2']))
{
  $socket = $_POST['option2'];

  echo '<select name="option3">';
  foreach($fanarray[$fantype]['socket'][$socket] as $fan)
  {
    echo '<option value="'.$fan.'">'.$option.'</option>';
  }
  echo '</select>';
}
?>

Something like that, where you only select from certain arrays..... seems to me like it would work and make your life a lot easier....

[JD_]

thanks for your help bpat1434 i couldnt get ur example to work.

just for anyone who is doing a similiar thing this is how i eventually did it , im not the best php coder , but i understand how it works. taking the values from the bad arrays and replacing them with nothing.

$zeros = "";

if ($option1 == "1") { $good = array(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9); }
if ($option1 == "2") { $good = array(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9); }
if ($option1 == "3") { $good = array(2,5,6,7); }
if ($option1 == "4") { $good = array(2,5,8,9); }
if ($option1 == "5") { $good = array(2,5,6,7); }
if ($option1 == "6") { $good = array(2,5,6,7); }
if ($option1 == "7") { $good = array(1,2,5); }
if ($option1 == "8") { $good = array(1,2,5); }

if ($option2 == "1") { $bad1 = array(3,4,5,6,7,8,9); }
if ($option2 == "2") { $bad1 = array(8); }
if ($option2 == "3") { $bad1 = array(4,5,6,7,8,9); }
if ($option2 == "4") { $bad1 = array(1,2,3,5,6,7); }

if ($option3 == "1") { $bad2 = array(6,8); }
if ($option3 == "2") { $bad2 = array(7,8); }
if ($option3 == "3") { }

if ($option4 == "1") { $bad3 = array(1,3,4); }
if ($option4 == "2") { }

if ($option5 == "1") { $bad4 = array(1,3,4); }
if ($option5 == "2") { }

if ($option6 == "1") { $bad5 = array(4,5,6,7,8); }
if ($option6 == "2") { }


$cut = str_replace($bad1, $zeros, $good);
$cut2 = str_replace($bad2, $zeros, $cut);
$cut3 = str_replace($bad3, $zeros, $cut2);
$cut4 = str_replace($bad4, $zeros, $cut3);
$cut5 = str_replace($bad5, $zeros, $cut4);

unset($cut5['']);

while (list($key,$value) = each($cut5)) {
if ($value == "") { echo ""; } else {
echo "<a href=\"pdfs/$img\" class=\"noimg\" target=\"_blank\"><img src=\"binaries\fan_selector\.".$value.".gif\" class=\"images\"></a>";
}
}