Form $_GET with url containing [] on the address bar

hatching

How do I get a submit form to $_GET the url to hardcode the symbols [] onto the address bar?

http://site.com/index.php?subject[]=english&gender[]=male

I tried:
<input name="subject[]">

But the url on the address returns this on the address bar:
subject%5B%5D=english

wilku

%5B%5D are [] urlencoded ([man]urlencode[/man]). Some characters are illegal in url and therfore must be encoded. The solution depends on why you need [] in there.

hatching

My teacher told us the following example variables were to search for specific students in a class.

subject[]=english
gender[]=male

It works when we directly input in the url:

http://site.com/index.php?subject[]=english&gender[]=male

When I tried directly doing it without the [], it doesn't work. I don't know what the teacher did but I need to create a search form with pulldown menus to integrate the search url with the [] when submitted with a GET method.

wilku

Here's some example I tested

<html>
<body>
	<form action='index.php' method='GET'>
		<input type='text' name="subject[]" VALUE='subject value'>
		<input type='submit' value='Submit'>
	</form>
<br>GET:<br>
<pre>
<?php
var_dump($_GET);
?>
</pre>
</body>
</html>

It didn't matter if i typed url directly with [], or sent the form (with %5B%5D) the output is the same:

GET:

array(1) {
  ["subject"]=>
  array(1) {
    [0]=>
    string(13) "subject value"
  }
}

[] turns request variable into an array, so to acces it you'd write $_GET['subject'][0].