multi-select broken

everwonderedwhy

ok I'm having the wierdest problem. I have a form. in the form a multiselect named topics[]

<select name="topics[]" size="4" multiple="multiple" id="topics[]">
[INDENT]<option value="">No Preference</option>
<option value="1" >Abstinence</option>
<option value="25" >Communication</option>
<option value="26" >Conflict & Disillusionment</option>
<option value="31" >Cooking</option>
<option value="20" >Coping with Change</option>
<option value="27" >Customer Service/Relationships</option>
<option value="16" >Disability</option>
<option value="28" >Diversity</option>
<option value="29" >Domestic Violence</option>
<option value="30" >Drinking & Driving</option>
<option value="3" >Entertainment</option>
<option value="33" >Environment</option>
<option value="18" >Ethics</option>
<option value="34" >Financial</option>
<option value="35" >Fitness</option>
<option value="36" >Freedom/Liberty</option>
<option value="37" >Gardening</option>
<option value="13" >God and Business</option>
<option value="12" >Health Issues</option>
<option value="38" >Home</option>
<option value="32" >Hospitality</option>
<option value="10" >Leadership/Teamwork</option>
<option value="39" >Life Balance/Time Management</option>
<option value="6" >Marriage/Family</option>
<option value="40" >Media</option>
<option value="41" >Mentoring</option>
<option value="42" >Middle East</option>
<option value="5" >Motivational/Inspirational</option>
<option value="43" >Nutrition/Diet</option>
<option value="8" >Parenting</option>
<option value="17" >Patriotism</option>
<option value="19" >Pornography</option>
<option value="24" >Pro-Life</option>
<option value="15" >Safety & Security</option>
<option value="11" >Sales, Marketing/Performance</option>
<option value="44" >Stress Management</option>
<option value="45" >Technology</option>
<option value="46" >Terrorism</option>
<option value="47" >U.S. Foreign Policy</option>
<option value="48" >Wealth Building</option>[/INDENT]
</select>

this makes my url be results.php?topics%5B%5D=1&topics%5B%5D=25&topics%5B%5D=26

when i echo topics[0] it returns A
when i echo topics[1] it returns r
when i echo topics[2] it returns r
when i echo topics[3] it returns a
when i echo topics[4] it returns y

what is wrong here?

NogDog

Try echoing $_GET['topics'][0].

Rodney_H_

<?php // try something simple like this  ?>
<form method="post" action="">
<select name="topics[]" size="4" multiple="multiple" id="topics[]">
    <option value="">No Preference</option>
    <option value="1" >Abstinence</option>
    <option value="25" >Communication</option>
    <option value="26" >Conflict & Disillusionment</option>
    <option value="31" >Cooking</option>
    <option value="20" >Coping with Change</option>
    <option value="27" >Customer Service/Relationships</option>
    <option value="16" >Disability</option>
    <option value="28" >Diversity</option>
    <option value="29" >Domestic Violence</option>
    <option value="30" >Drinking & Driving</option>
    <option value="3" >Entertainment</option>
    <option value="33" >Environment</option>
    <option value="18" >Ethics</option>
    <option value="34" >Financial</option>
    <option value="35" >Fitness</option>
    <option value="36" >Freedom/Liberty</option>
    <option value="37" >Gardening</option>
    <option value="13" >God and Business</option>
    <option value="12" >Health Issues</option>
    <option value="38" >Home</option>
    <option value="32" >Hospitality</option>
    <option value="10" >Leadership/Teamwork</option>
    <option value="39" >Life Balance/Time Management</option>
    <option value="6" >Marriage/Family</option>
    <option value="40" >Media</option>
    <option value="41" >Mentoring</option>
    <option value="42" >Middle East</option>
    <option value="5" >Motivational/Inspirational</option>
    <option value="43" >Nutrition/Diet</option>
    <option value="8" >Parenting</option>
    <option value="17" >Patriotism</option>
    <option value="19" >Pornography</option>
    <option value="24" >Pro-Life</option>
    <option value="15" >Safety & Security</option>
    <option value="11" >Sales, Marketing/Performance</option>
    <option value="44" >Stress Management</option>
    <option value="45" >Technology</option>
    <option value="46" >Terrorism</option>
    <option value="47" >U.S. Foreign Policy</option>
    <option value="48" >Wealth Building</option>
</select>
<input type="submit" />
</form>

<?php
if(isset($_POST['topics']))
{
	echo '<pre>', print_r($_POST['topics']);
}
?>

sid

everwonderedwhy wrote:
[...]

this makes my url be results.php?topics%5B%5D=1&topics%5B%5D=25&topics%5B%5D=26

when i echo topics[0] it returns A
when i echo topics[1] it returns r
when i echo topics[2] it returns r
when i echo topics[3] it returns a
when i echo topics[4] it returns y

what is wrong here?

to cover both the above suggestions in one you can also check the $_REQUEST-array. i personally prefer this way:

var_dump($_REQUEST);

in your specific case, the $GET - or more specifically, the $GET['topics'] - array should suffice.

everwonderedwhy

This is my form.

on the submitted page, i currently have

print_r($_GET);

which returns

Array ( [name] => [occupation] => [topics] => Array [multi] => multi [submit] => Search )

<?php
$eventtypes_query 	= mysql_query('select * from event_types order by event_type');
$num_eventtypes 	= mysql_num_rows($eventtypes_query);
$topics_query 		= mysql_query('select * from topics order by topic');
$num_topics 		= mysql_num_rows($topics_query);
$fee_ranges_query 	= mysql_query('select * from fee_ranges');
$num_fee_ranges 	= mysql_num_rows($fee_ranges_query);
$occupations_query 	= mysql_query('select * from occupations order by occupation');
$num_occupations 	= mysql_num_rows($occupations_query);
?>
<div id="powerSearch" >
	<form action="speaker_listing.php" method="get">
	  <table align="center" cellspacing="0" >
		<tr>
		  <td><label for="name" style="color:#235C9B;">Speaker's Name </label></td>
		  <td>
			<div align="left">
			  <input type="text" name="name" id="name" /> <a href="speaker_directory.php" class="blue9">Speaker Directory</a>
			</div></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
		  <td><label for="occupation" style="color:#235C9B;">Speaker's Vocation </label></td>
		  <td>
			<div align="left">
			  <select name="occupation" id="occupation">
				<option value="">No Preference</option>
				<?php
		 for($i=0;$i<$num_occupations;$i++){ $occupations = mysql_fetch_array($occupations_query);?>
				<option value="<?php echo $occupations['id']; ?>" ><?php echo $occupations['occupation']; ?></option>
				<?php } ?>
			  </select>
			</div></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
		  <td><label for="topics[]" style="color:#235C9B;">Topics </label></td>
		  <td>
			<div align="left">
			  <select name="topics[]" size="4" multiple="multiple" id="topics[]">
			  <option value="">No Preference</option>
				<?php for($i=0;$i<$num_topics;$i++){ $topics = mysql_fetch_array($topics_query);?>
				<option value="<?php echo $topics['id']; ?>" ><?php echo $topics['topic']; ?></option>
				<?php } ?>
			  </select>
			</div></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
		  <td><label for="eventTypes[]" style="color:#235C9B;">Event Types </label></td>
		  <td>
			<div align="left">
			  <select name="eventTypes[]" size="4" multiple="multiple" id="eventTypes[]">
			  <option value="">No Preference</option>
				<?php for($i=0;$i<$num_eventtypes;$i++){ $eventtypes = mysql_fetch_array($eventtypes_query);?>
				<option value="<?php echo $eventtypes['id']; ?>" ><?php echo $eventtypes['event_type']; ?></option>
				<?php } ?>
			  </select><input name="multi" type="hidden" value="multi" />
			</div></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
		  <td>&nbsp;</td><td><br /><input name="submit" type="submit" style="float:left; background-color:#FF6600; color:#FFFFFF; font-weight:bold; font-size:12px; border:none;" value="Search" align="right" />                      </td>
		</tr>
	  </table>
	</form>
	</div>

everwonderedwhy

that doesnt work either sid. It has to be a stupid error. I tried the solutions above in seperate code and it worked fine, but when I tried to put it into the code i have I had no luck. I am so confused

sid

im not sure, what exactly is going wrong there. did you check the html code generated by your script?

if i c&p the code from Rodney H. and submit the first 10 selected options, the output for me looks like this:

Array
(
    [0] => 
    [1] => 1
    [2] => 25
    [3] => 26
    [4] => 31
    [5] => 20
    [6] => 27
    [7] => 16
    [8] => 28
    [9] => 29
)
1

everwonderedwhy

mee too.....thats why im confused. would it help if i post links to the actual code?

everwonderedwhy

ok i may have figured out the problem. Its because im using ajax to pass the query string value from one page to another......ideas about this?

sid

i havent worked with ajax so far - since this is a basic html issue, i doubt that that's it. can you just copy and paste the full html output of your script?

everwonderedwhy

that was totally the problem. I rewrote the ajax and it works like a charm. Instead of tacking the query string onto the end of my httpRequest, I was adding the $GET variables onto the address individually. when it reached the multi-select it didnt loop through them but instead added the value "Array". That is what was causing my problem. in the end i just had to loop through that $GET variable before I tacked it onto my address......Thanks for your help.

sid

im glad you got it worked out! ;-)