HELP! Checkboxes retaining value after after submit is pressed

noob24210

I am working with a DB and a php form, where the user can make selections and it filters down the original total, based upon their selection. They hit the submit button, and it shows them how many results (on the same page). I've got all this working, but I cannot for the life of me figure out to retain the checkbox as checked (if they checked it) after they hit submit! very very annoying. I've tried several things, but I don't read php very well. I'm pretty sure the answer has something to do with sessions, but I can't figure out the code I need to write to get it to show the checks the user checked after they hit submit.

Also, I found a way to use php to get the box to remember, but it's based on the name of the checkbox, not the value. Obviously, the names are the same (in this case "enrollment[]"... but I don't know how to attach the value as the thing that is the great signifier. ANY help would be GREATLY appreciated. I've scoured the internet and wracked my brain for three days... to no avail! Thank you!

Here is the code for one of the tables.

<table>

                  <tr>
                    <td width="20" align="left" valign="middle"><input type="checkbox" name="enrollment[]" value="(enrollment >= 1 and enrollment <= 200)&Between 1 and 200" />                        </td>
                    <td align="left" valign="middle">1 - 200 </td>
                  </tr>
                  <tr>
                    <td width="20" align="left" valign="middle"><input type="checkbox" name="enrollment[]" value="(enrollment >= 201 and enrollment <= 500)&Between 201 and 500" />                        </td>
                    <td align="left" valign="middle">201 - 500 </td>
                  </tr>
                  <tr>
                    <td width="20" align="left" valign="middle"><input type="checkbox" name="enrollment[]" value="(enrollment >= 501 and enrollment <= 1000)&Between 501 and 1000" />                        </td>
                    <td align="left" valign="middle">501 - 1000 </td>
                  </tr>
                  <tr>
                    <td width="20" align="left" valign="middle"><input type="checkbox" name="enrollment[]" value="(enrollment >= 1001 and enrollment <= 2000)&Between 1001 and 2000" />                        </td>
                    <td align="left" valign="middle">1001 - 2000 </td>
                  </tr>
                  <tr>
                    <td width="20" align="left" valign="middle"><input type="checkbox" name="enrollment[]" value="(enrollment >= 2001 and enrollment <= 3000)&Between 2001 and 3000" />                        </td>
                    <td align="left" valign="middle">2001 - 3000 </td>
                  </tr>
                  <tr>
                    <td width="20" align="left" valign="middle"><input type="checkbox" name="enrollment[]" value="(enrollment >= 3001 and enrollment <= 5000)&Between 3001 and 5000" />                        </td>
                    <td align="left" valign="middle">3001 - 5000 </td>
                  </tr>
                  <tr>
                    <td width="20" align="left" valign="middle"><input type="checkbox" name="enrollment[]" value="(enrollment >= 5001 and enrollment <= 10000)&Between 5001 and 10000" />                        </td>
                    <td align="left" valign="middle">5001 - 10000 </td>
                  </tr>
                  <tr>
                    <td width="20" align="left" valign="middle"><input type="checkbox" name="enrollment[]" value="(enrollment >= 10001 and enrollment <= 25000)&Between 10001 and 25000" />                        </td>
                    <td align="left" valign="middle">10001 - 25000 </td>
                  </tr>
                  <tr>
                    <td width="20" align="left" valign="middle"><input type="checkbox" name="enrollment[]" value="(enrollment >= 25000 and enrollment <= 900000)&25000+" />                        </td>
                    <td align="left" valign="middle">25000+ </td>
                  </tr>
                </table>

johanafm

You don't need sessions for this. You just have to check $GET or $POST, depending on the value of the form's method attribute.

/* I'm setting the values of the checkboxes to integers from 0 and up so they can be used
    for easy comparison as well as getting the values you've been using before. */

$enrValues = array('(enrollment >= 1 and enrollment <= 200)&Between 1 and 200',
				'(enrollment >= 201 and enrollment <= 500)&Between 201 and 500'
				/* etc */);
$enrTexts = array('1 - 200', '201 - 500' /* etc */);

foreach($_POST['enrollment'] as $e) {	
	/* whatever you used to do with your post data before.
		But $e no longer contains the value you had in your checkboxes. You get those with
	*/
	$enrValues[$e];
}

// build a string containing the table rows with checkboxes
$enrCount = count($enrValues);
$rows = '';
$selected = array_shift($_POST['enrollment']);
for ($i = 0; $i < $enrCount; ++$i) {
	$rows .= '
		<tr>
			<td width="20" align="left" valign="middle">
				<input type="checkbox" name="enrollment[]" value="' . $i . '"';
	// check if the checkbox was selected
	if ($selected == $i) {
		$rows .= ' selected="selected"';
		// grab the value of next of the checked checkboxes
		$selected = array_shift($_POST['enrollment']);
	}
	$rows .= '/>
			</td>
			<td align="left" valign="middle">' . $enrTexts[$i] . '</td>
		</tr>';

}

Also if you want to send the checkbox values you used to the browser, it shouldn't be the way it used to

(enrollment >= 1 and enrollment <= 200)&Between 1 and 200

but rather this

(enrollment >= 1 and enrollment <= 200)&amp;Between 1 and 200