Passing an array to a function... help!

[steveryan]

Hello,

I have a html form which has a dynamic number of fields, each with a dynamic name.

I am passing the amount of fields and an array containing the field names as hidden form fields when the user submits the form.

This is OK.

The function which receives my array (receives the $POST['array_of_form_names']) when the user submits the form... how do I populate an array with the $POST['array_of_form_names'] ?

I am currently doing this -

function get_array(&$formfields)
{
$formfields = array();
$formfields = $_POST['array_of_form_names'];
}

After this I would expect the array $formfields to have all the values of $_POST['array_of_form_names'], right?

Well, if I loop as follows -

for ($i =0; $i<$number_of_array_fields; $i++)
echo $formfields[$i];

• all I get is "Array".

Am I doing something wrong? Can arrays not be passed BY REFERENCE? I need to keep $formfields after the function ends, hence the by reference requirement. Also, am I assigning the form array to my $formfields array incorrectly?

Any pointers appreciated...

Thanks!

[thorpe]

Can we see your actual code? How do you call this function? Your not passing the array into the function at all, your just assigning it the value of $POST['array_of_form_names'] from within a function. The $POST array is global so doesn't need to be passed into functions.

Im just not real sure what your trying to do.

[steveryan]

Thanks for the reply.

This is the form code -

$query = "select * from adverts where screened = 'no' order by date asc";
$result = mysql_query($query);

$resultcount = mysql_num_rows($result); //how many results?
$count = 0; //to keep track of where we are
$formfields = array();

echo '<form action="http://www.mydomain.com/moderate.php" method="post">';

while($row=mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{   

	// simply displaying a form
	// number of items to display will change based on how many
	// results are returned from the select query
	// each fields name is based on the id from the database

echo '<div class="entry-body">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
<tr>
<td width="20%" class="entry-body" valign="top"><b>Type:</b></td>
<td width="60%" class="entry-body" valign="top">'.$row["type"].'</td>
<td width="20%" class="entry-body"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="20%" class="entry-body"><b>Title:</b></td>
<td width="60%" class="entry-body">'.$row["title"].'</td>
<td width="20%" class="entry-body"></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="20%" class="entry-body" valign="top"><b>Body:</b></td>
<td width="60%" valign="top" class="entry-body">'.$row["advert"].'</td>
<td width="20%" class="entry-body">
<INPUT TYPE=RADIO NAME="whattodo-'.$row["advert_id"].'" VALUE="accept" style="background-color: #1A1A1A;">Accept<br>
<INPUT TYPE=RADIO NAME="whattodo-'.$row["advert_id"].'" VALUE="reject" style="background-color: #1A1A1A;">Reject<br>
<INPUT TYPE=RADIO NAME="whattodo-'.$row["advert_id"].'" VALUE="ignore" style="background-color: #1A1A1A;" checked>Ignore
</td>
</tr>
</table>';

echo '<div class="entry-footer"></div>';
$formfields[$count] = "whattodo-".$row['advert_id'];
$count++;
}

echo '<p align="right">
<input type="hidden" value="'.$resultcount.'" name="resultcount">
<input type="hidden" value="'.$formfields.'" name="formfields">
<input type="submit" value="Submit" name="thebutton">&nbsp;</p>
</form>';

This is the function which is picking up the results -

function check_moderate($formfields, &$resultcount, &$thebutton)
{
	if (isset($_POST['formfields']))
	{
		$formfields = array();
		$formfields = $_POST['formfields'];
	}

if (isset($_POST['resultcount']))
	$resultcount = $_POST['resultcount'];

if (isset($_POST['thebutton']))
	$thebutton = $_POST['thebutton'];
}

The logic is -

Form is displayed
Values are submitted
Function assigns values to variables

Thank you.

[ClarkF1]

You've initialised a new Array and read another array into the first element.

What you get if you do

for ($i =0; $i<$number_of_array_fields; $i++)
echo $formfields[0][$i];

A useful function I use is:

function dump($item)
{
  echo "<pre>";
  var_dump($item);
  echo "</pre>";
}

If you run insert the function and call dump($formfields); into your script before the for loop it'll print out the contents of the $formfields array so you can see what is stored where.

[thorpe]

Sorry... Youve lost me.

<input type="hidden" value="'.$formfields.'" name="formfields">

You cant just stick an array into a forms value attribute and expect it to appear. Just as you cant simply echo an array.

And sorry, but, what exactly is your check_moderate() function meant to do?

[ysu]

You can pass on the already collected values in the session.

As for the input, you can try using an array for field names:
<input type=text name="arrFields[1]" />
<input type=text name="arrFields[2]" />

then you can access them in
$REQUEST['arrFields'][1]
$REQUEST['arrFields'][2]

in your case I'd name the fields like this:
<INPUT TYPE=RADIO NAME="whattodo['.$row["advert_id"].'"] VALUE="ignore" ...

then you'll have a
$REQUEST['whattodo'] array filled nicely
and you can simply walk that array for the $advert_id=>$value pairs
foreach ( $REQUEST['whattodo'] as $advert_id=>$value )

and do the necessary things.

[chrislive]

you may want to look at something like this to assist.. it will loop through all $_POST data.. echo the field name and value 😉

// Loop Through our POST data
while ($var = each($_POST)) {

  // Get the Field Name
  $field = $var['key'];

  // Get the Field Value
  $value = $var['value'];

  // Echo the result.. you will want to use the data for something else im sure
  echo "$field - $value";

}

[laserlight]

If you do take chrislive's suggestion, you may find it better to use a foreach loop instead of a while loop with each.

foreach ($_POST as $field => $value) {
	echo "$field - $value";
}

[steveryan]

Thanks everyone. I'm not sure why I was complicating things for myself.

1. I've realised arrays are confusing me.
2. I need to stop programming when I haven't slept 🙂

Thanks again for your help. I have it working now.