strange thing about $_POST array 2

[Duke555]

i have bumped into somthing else that causes a bug in my application.
i have a form which user a $_POST['cart']

for testing purposes when i print $_POST via print_r()
this is the output:

printing _POST
Array ( [cart] => Array ( [Men's Roller Blades] => 0 [Women's Roller Blades] => 0 [Helmet] => 0 [Knee Pads] => 0 [Knee and Elbow Pads] => 0 ) )

however once i click on the submit button which takes me to another page (my_cart.php)

when i print $_POST array i get the following:

printing _POST
Array ( [Men] => 0 [Women] => 0 [Helmet] => 0 [Knee_Pads] => 0 [Knee_and_Elbow_Pads] => 0 )

obviously it messes everything up. please help.
thank you! 🙂

[dagon]

if you need vars between multiple pages put them in sessions\cookies.

[Duke555]

in other words since i am using $POST[] variables which i use as keys for POST are going to get truncated each time i use the form with a given _POST array?

e.g. Women's Roller BLades will become 'Women'

is there absolutely anyway to get around it?

thank you 🙂

[dagon]

the array key is variable, variable names can't contain apostrophes or spaces or start with numbers

Variable names follow the same rules as other labels in PHP. A valid variable name starts with a letter or underscore, followed by any number of letters, numbers, or underscores.

[Duke555]

sorry, i sihould have posted the FORM code before.
i am actually using variables (i.e. $name) to access keys in POST and SESSION arrays. i do not pass variables form one page to another if i understood you correctly...

thank you 🙂

<form action="my_cart.php" name="cart" method="post">
	<?
	//traversing outer array in this loop
	//'name' is the 'key' and 'description' is the 'value' of this outer array
	while (list($name, $description) = each($product))
	{
		//calculating grand total of an item's 'price' and 'shipping' which are stored in the inner
		//array and are pointed by the keys 'price' and 'shipping' respectively
		$grand_total = calc_total($description["Price"], $description["Shipping"]);
		$shipping = $description["Shipping"] * $description["Price"];
	?>
	<tr>
		<td align="left"><? echo $name;?></td>
		<td align="left"><? echo number_format($description["Price"], 2);?></td>
		<td align="left"><? echo number_format($shipping, 2); ?></td>
		<td align="left"><input type="text" size="3" name="<?echo "$name";?>" value='<?$temp_number = 0; echo $_POST['cart']["$name"]=$temp_number;?>' /></td>
			<td align="right"><? echo number_format($grand_total, 2);?></td>
		</tr>
		<? 
		//use casting (int) to prevent hacking attacks/ misuse of the site i.e. convert all the input values into numbers regardless of the input
		$_SESSION['cart'][$name]['qty']=(int)$_POST['cart'][$name];
	}
	echo "<br>printing _POST<br>";
	print_r($_POST);
	echo "<br>printing _SESSION<br>";
	print_r($_SESSION);	
	echo "<br>";
		// Print the footer, close the table, and the form:
		?><tr>
			<td colspan="4" align="right"><b>Total:</b></td>
			<td align="center">TEST</td>
		</tr>	
		<tr>
			<td colspan="6" align="center">TEST</td>
		</tr>
		</table><div align="center"><input type=submit value="SUBMIT"></div>
</form>

[dagon]

you do pass vars from one page to the next and you cant give them just any name, see above.