For Loop issues

[reub77]

I'm having issues trying to retrieve variables in a For Loop. The page I'm trying to do this on is retrieving a number of variables defined by the user. If the user states they need to add 10 users to teh system then I need to retrieve 4 variables associated with each user. Each variable is named with a number at the end.

eg.

First Name would be $fname1
Last Name would be $lname1
Date of Employment would be $doe1

Now, if 18 users are required I then allow the user to enter this info for all 18 users. The trouble I'm having is calling all this data to be inserted into a mail function.

Here's my code:

for ($counter = 1; $counter <= $numcov; $counter++)
	{
	  $a .= "User #".$counter.": $fname".$counter." $lname".$counter." Date of Employment: $doe".$counter."\n\n";
	}

I'm counting on being able to use the number in the variable name to call each of the user defined amount of variables. Is my code correct? Is there a better way to do this?

Thanks

[Installer]

A better way would be to use an array. Place your new users data into an array structured like this:

Array
(
[0] => Array
(
[fname] => John
[lname] => Doe
[doe] => 2004-04-30
)
[1] => Array
(
[fname] => Jane
[lname] => Roe
[doe] => 2005-04-30
)
)

Then you can build your string like this:

$a = '';
foreach ($user_arr as $key => $user) {
    $a .= 'User #' . $key . ': ' . $user['fname'] . ' ' . $user['lname'] . 
          ' Date of Employment: ' . $user['doe'] . "\n\n";
}

[reub77]

Sounds like it might work. I'm still stuck however, on how I would populate the array. I would only know the number of users to populate. I would be left with having to insert many variables named as I had mentioned before. It would have to be left so that the number of variables to insert into the array could change. I'm not seeing how we'd be getting away from having to do some sort of a loop in order to populate it and then we're back to my original problem. :queasy:

[reub77]

Does anybody have any ideas on how to use an array or a for loop to accomplish what I'm doing? Going in I don't know how many users info will be submitted, I do know however as they submit their form. There's a variable that tells me how many users infos were submitted. And then if say 15 users were submitted, I would then need to print all these names out for a mail function to send out. The trouble is that as I create the PHP code I won't know how many are submitted. So I feel the only way to do it is by a loop. If I'm able to create the following variables:

$fname1
$fname2
$fname3
...

$lname1
$lname2
$lname3
...

$doe1
$doe2
$doe3
...

Does this now enable me to use a for loop something like the one in the first posting to be able to print the data out into an email by using a loop? The code I have above doesn't work, I'm hoping I've just got the syntax wrong though. Or maybe someone recognizes what I'm trying to do and knows a better way.

[Installer]

The code I posted is a better way, and it does use a for loop, and it will work because you don't have to know how many will be submitted.

If you're unwilling to learn how to use arrays, then your days as a programmer will be rough ones.

[iamtheironman]

if the values are posted then you can use arrays in the form.

in this case even if you have a thousand users you'll still only
have to deal with two variables : ['fname'] and ['lname']

run the script to get the picture

<?
if($POST)
{
foreach($POST["fname"] as $intKey => $firstname)
{
echo "<hr>user # ".($intKey+1);
echo "<br> First name: " . $firstname;
echo "<br> Last name: ". $_POST["lname"][$intKey];
}
}
?>

<form method="post" name="form1">
<hr>
<input type="text" name="fname[]" value="joe">
<input type="text" name="lname[]" value="dalton">
<hr>
<input type="text" name="fname[]" value="jack">
<input type="text" name="lname[]" value="ruby">
<hr>
<input type="text" name="fname[]" value="george">
<input type="text" name="lname[]" value="bush">
<hr>
<input type="submit" value="submit">
<hr>
</form>

[reub77]

The problem is that I'm already at the stage of retrieving them from the form. They've already been assigned variable names. how can I then assign an indeterminate amount of variables into the array without having to do something like this:

$fname".$counter."
or
$lname".$counter."
or
$doe".$counter."

I guess I'm just not seeing how I could effectively set up the array.

Thanks

[a1phanum3ric]

Well, if you use something like this:

$aArray[] = $sFirstName;
$aArray[] = $sLastName;

Then 'echo' or 'print_r' the array, you'll get messed up results cos $aArray[0] will equal $sFirstName, $sArray[1] will equal $sLastName and so on...

SO, if you do this:

for($x=0; $x<$numcov; $x++){
    $aArray[$x]['fname'] = $sFirstName;
    $aArray[$x]['lname'] = $sLastName;
    // And so on...
}

Your array will be cool, and much nicer to use as the first 'dimension' of your array will correspond to ONE record (i.e. $aArray[2]), so all you gotta do is something like:

print_r($aArray); // To see the entire array

// Or,

echo $aArray[2]['fname']; // To get the first name of record number 3 (because arrays start at zero (0)).

Ed.

[iamtheironman]

You could use eval(). I once read that the overhead of using eval is like caling a second script so here I build a string and then call eval() just once.

$fname1="joe";
$lname1="dalton";

$fname2='jack';
$lname2="ruby";

$fname3="george";
$lname3="bush";

$users=array();
$nbUsers=3;

$tmp=array();
for($i=1;$i<=$nbUsers;$i++)
{
	$str1=" \$users[".($i-1)."]['fname']=\$fname".($i)."; ";
	$str2=" \$users[".($i-1)."]['lname']=\$lname".($i)."; ";

echo("<hr>".$str1);
echo("<br>".$str2);

array_push($tmp,$str1); // using array instead of concatenating a huge string
array_push($tmp,$str2); 
}

// this will fill the users array
eval(implode($tmp));

foreach($users as $i => $u)
{
	echo "<hr>user # ".($i+1);
	echo "<br> First name: " . $u['fname'];
	echo "<br> Last name: ".  $u['lname'];
}

[iamtheironman]

here's a complete generic version with client-side javascript

<?

$MAXUSERS=18; // passed to javascript

if(isset($_POST["addSubmit"])) // read posted users
{
	$nbUsers=$_POST["nbUsers"];
	$users=array();

for($i=0;$i<$nbUsers;$i++)
{
	$users[$i]["fname"]=$_POST["fname"][$i];
	$users[$i]["lname"]=$_POST["lname"][$i];
	$users[$i]["doe"]=$_POST["doe"][$i];
}
} 

?>

<form method="post" name="form1">

<?

if(isset($_POST["addSubmit"])) // display posted users
{
	echo '<input type="submit" value="Back">';
	foreach($users as $i => $u)
	{
		echo '<hr>'.($i+1);
		echo "<br> First name: " . $u['fname'];
		echo "<br> Last name: " .  $u['lname'];
		echo "<br> Date of Employment: " . $u['doe'];
	}
} 

else // display the form
{

?>
	<select name="nbUsers" onchange="fillform(this.options.selectedIndex)">
		<option value="0">Choose number</option>

	<script type="text/javascript">

		var maxUsers=<?echo $MAXUSERS;?>;
		for(i=1;i<=maxUsers;i++)
		{	document.write('<option value="'+i+'">'+i+'</option>')
		}

		function fillform(nbUsers){
			var str='<div>';
			str+='First name <input name="fname[]">';
			str+='Last name <input name="lname[]">';
			str+='Date of Employment <input name="doe[]">';
			str+='</div>';

			document.getElementById("addUsers").innerHTML="";
			while(nbUsers--)
			{	document.getElementById("addUsers").innerHTML+=str;
			}
		}
	</script>
<select>

<div id="addUsers">
</div>

<input type="submit" name="addSubmit" value="Add">

<? }?>

</form>