Multidimensional array confusion

duckduckgoose

If I print_r($_POST) the values submitted by my form, I'll get this:


Array ( 
    [Name0] => Doe 
    [Age0] => Array ( [0] => 23 [1] => 28 [2] => 32 [3] => 11 [4] => 9) 
    [Name1] => Smith 
    [Age1] => Array ( [0] => 7 [1] => 8 [2] => 9 ) 
    [Name2] => Jones 
    [Age2] => Array ( [0] => 54 [1] => 42 ) 
    [submit] => Submit 
)

I'm trying to figure out how to match up the Name/Age arrays so that when I submit it, I'll be able to store the information in my database like this:

id Name Age
1 Doe 23,28,32,11,9
2 Smith 7,8,9
3 Jones 54, 42

Is there a way to do this?

NogDog

It might be a bit easier to name your fields something like:

'[0][name]'
'[0][age][]'
'[0][age][]'
'[0][age][]'
...etc....

'[1][name]'
'[1][age][]'
'[1][age][]'
'[1][age][]'
...etc....

Then you'd end up with an array like:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [name] => Doe
            [age] => Array
                (
                    [0] => 23
                    [1] => 28
                    [2] => 32
                    [3] => 11
                    [4] => 9
                )

    )

[1] => Array
    (
        [name] => Smith
        [age] => Array
            (
                [0] => 7
                [1] => 8
                [2] => 9
            )

    )

)

This should be a bit easier to "walk" through and get the values you want.

duckduckgoose

Hmm, well, I'd certainly like to do something like that, but I'm a bit unclear on how to do that when it's just retrieving values posted from the form. Can I submit the values that way?

NogDog

You would need to name the form elements appropriately. Here's a short example:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html lang='en'>
<head>
<meta http-equiv='Content-Type' content='text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1'>
<title>Page Title</title>
<!-- link rel='stylesheet' href='style.css' type='text/css' -->
<style type="text/css">
<!--

-->
</style>
</head>
<body>
<form action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>" method="post">
<p>Name:
<input name='input[0][name]' type='text' size='32' maxlenght='32'>
Age:
<input name='input[0][age][]' type='checkbox' value='1'>1
<input name='input[0][age][]' type='checkbox' value='2'>2
<input name='input[0][age][]' type='checkbox' value='3'>3
</p>
<p>Name:
<input name='input[1][name]' type='text' size='32' maxlenght='32'>
Age:
<input name='input[1][age][]' type='checkbox' value='1'>1
<input name='input[1][age][]' type='checkbox' value='2'>2
<input name='input[1][age][]' type='checkbox' value='3'>3
</p>
<p>Name:
<input name='input[2][name]' type='text' size='32' maxlenght='32'>
Age:
<input name='input[2][age][]' type='checkbox' value='1'>1
<input name='input[2][age][]' type='checkbox' value='2'>2
<input name='input[2][age][]' type='checkbox' value='3'>3
</p>
<p><input type='submit' value='Submit'>
</form>
<?php
if(count($_POST))
{
   echo "<pre>";
   print_r($_POST);
   echo "</pre>\n";
}
?>
</body>
</html>

duckduckgoose

Well, I can't really do it that way for other reasons. I did try renaming my Name input field to Name[] and then using:

        foreach($_POST['Name'] as $i=>$v) {
                $strVals[] = "('".$v."','".implode(',', $_POST['Age'.$i])."')";
        $strSql .= implode(",", $strVals);
        }

    print_r($_POST);
    echo "<p>".$strSql;

Which almost worked, except that I get duplicates. So, if the array is:

Array ( 
    [Name0] => Doe 
    [Age0] => Array ( [0] => 23 [1] => 28 [2] => 32 [3] => 11 [4] => 9) 
    [Name1] => Smith 
    [Age1] => Array ( [0] => 7 [1] => 8 [2] => 9 ) 
    [Name2] => Jones 
    [Age2] => Array ( [0] => 54 [1] => 42 ) 
    [submit] => Submit 
)

I'll get:

('Doe','23,28,32,11,9')('Doe','23,28,32,11,9'),('Smith','7,8,9')('Doe','23,28,32,11,9'),('Smith','7,8,9'),('Jones','12,13,14')

When I echo $strSql. What I want is this:

('Doe','23,28,32,11,9'),('Smith','7,8,9'),('Jones','12,13,14')

duckduckgoose

My latest attempt involved this:


$i = 0;
$sql = 'INSERT INTO TableName (NameColumn, AgeColumn) VALUES ';
while (!empty($_POST['Name'.$i])) {
    $sql .= '("' . $_POST['Name'.$i] . '", "' . implode(',', $_POST['Age'.$i]) . '"),';
}
$sql = substring($sql, 0, strlen($sql)-1);
echo($sql);

But, I kept getting the error:

PHP Fatal error:  Call to undefined function substring()

Then, I changed substring to substr, and received no error messages, but nothing echoed either

It seems like it's in an endless loop. I removed that sql statement from within the while loop, and had it just echo "ok" and it kept echoing it and then crashed my browser. Am I forgetting to stick something in there, like $i++ or something?

rincewind456

That could be because there is no function substring(). Did you mean to use [man]substr/man?

Houdini

Because you didn't tell it to echo the substr() as defined so alter you PHP to

echo$sql = substr($sql, 0, strlen($sql)-1);//this will echo the statement
//instead of
$sql = substring($sql, 0, strlen($sql)-1);//this is an error
//or use
$sql = substr($sql, 0, strlen($sql)-1);
echo $sql;

Why you would want to do this is beyond me when all you really need to do is simply echo the $sql variable which you have already defined without using a PHP function of the substr().

bradgrafelman

Houdini wrote:
Why you would want to do this is beyond me

It's beyond me as well - what is the (intended) purpose of the (attempted) use of substr() in your code?

duckduckgoose

It was suggested to me by someone in another forum that I do it this way. In any event, a simple explanation why it isn't useful to do it this way will do nicely.

I don't really care how I get the result I ultimately need. My original question was this:

Array (
    [Name0] => Doe
    [Age0] => Array ( [0] => 23 [1] => 28 [2] => 32 [3] => 11 [4] => 9)
    [Name1] => Smith
    [Age1] => Array ( [0] => 7 [1] => 8 [2] => 9 )
    [Name2] => Jones
    [Age2] => Array ( [0] => 54 [1] => 42 )
    [submit] => Submit
)

I just want to match up Name[0] and Age[0]. Alternatively, if I create an array like this:

Array (
    [Name] => Array ( [0] => Doe [1] => Smith [2] =>Jones )
    [Age0] => Array ( [0] => 23 [1] => 28 [2] => 32 [3] => 11 [4] => 9)
    [Age1] => Array ( [0] => 7 [1] => 8 [2] => 9 )
    [Age2] => Array ( [0] => 54 [1] => 42 )
    [submit] => Submit
)

Then I'd need to know if it's possible to match up each element of the name array with the various elements of the age array.

NogDog

May not be the most elegant solution, but it seems to work:

$testData = array (
    'Name0' => 'Doe',
    'Age0' => array ( 0 => 23, 1 => 28, 2 => 32, 3 => 11, 4 => 9),
    'Name1' => 'Smith',
    'Age1' => array ( 0 => 7, 1 => 8, 2 => 9 ),
    'Name2' => 'Jones',
    'Age2' => array ( 0 => 54, 1 => 42 )
);
// organize data by index number:
$data = array();
foreach($testData as $key => $value)
{
   if(strpos($key, 'Name') === 0)
   {
      $ix = substr($key, 4);
      $data[$ix]['name'] = $value;
      $data[$ix]['age'] = (isset($testData["Age$ix"])) ?
            implode(',', $testData["Age$ix"]) : '';
   }
}
// build SQL from the data:
if(count($data))
{
   $sql = "INSERT INTO table_name (id, Name, Age) VALUES ";
   foreach($data as $key => $value)
   {
      $sql .= sprintf(
         "(%d, '%s', '%s'), ",
         (int)$key + 1,
         mysql_escape_string($value['name']),
         mysql_escape_string($value['age'])
      );
   }
   $sql = rtrim($sql, ', ');
}
// show result:
echo $sql;