submit multiple pieces of information with one textbox

the_mysox1

ok so i have a form where all the user needs to type in is a quantity but now here is what i am finding hard the form is being submited perfectly but how do i get it so that the product and the cost are also submited?

here is my code for my form:

    $store_sql = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM `stores` WHERE `location`='$cur_position'")or die(mysql_error());

if($store_sql)
{
    echo "<form method=\"post\" action=\"buy.php\">";
    echo "<table bgcolor=green border=1 style=\"color: #000022;\">";
    while($store_info=mysql_fetch_array($store_sql)) 
    {
        $store = $store_info['name'];
        $product = $store_info['product'];
        $cost = "\$".$store_info['cost'];
        echo "<tr><th colspan=3>".$store."</th></tr>";
        echo "<tr bgcolor=green>";
        echo "<td width=100px>";
        echo $product;
        echo "</td>";
        echo "<td>";
        echo $cost."/ea";
        echo "</td>";
        echo "<td>";
        echo "<input type=\"text\" size=\"1\" name=\"ammount\" maxlength=\"6\">";
    }
    echo "</tr>";
    echo "<tr>";
    echo "<td colspan=3 align=right>";
    echo "<input type=\"submit\" value=\"buy\">";
    echo "</td>";
    echo "</tr>";
    echo "</table>";
    echo "</form>";

?>

I only want to use one field but i want it so that the user can buy multiple different products at once. I don't know if there is somthing that I can add so that the textbox is attached to the row id in the database.

There is probably a simple way of doing this but i can't think of what it would be.

Thanks for the help in advance.

Dzeder

It looks like you might have more than one amount input field in the form? In that case, you will need to uniquely name each field, so you could use something like name=\"amount$product\". Then in buy.php you will need to intelligently traverse through the $POST array to get all the products and amounts. You could pass the cost in the same way as a hidden HTML field, but it would be better to look up the cost from the database.

the_mysox1

Dzeder;10968529 wrote:
so you could use something like name=\"amount$product\". Then in buy.php you will need to intelligently traverse through the $POST array to get all the products and amounts.QUOTE]

how would i get the names into buy.php if each name is a variable?

bradgrafelman

While you could traverse $POST "intelligently" to gather the "amount" prefixed fields, a better naming scheme would be amount[$product], e.g.:

<input type="text" name="amount[5]">

In that case, $_POST['amount'] will be an array that can be processed quite easily, e.g.:

foreach($_POST['amount'] as $product => $amount) {
  // do something with $amount given for $product
}

Dzeder

You would have to loop through the $_POST array. I haven't tested the below code, so watch out for bugs.

foreach ($_POST as $key=>$value) {
  if (substr($key, 0, 7)=='amount_') {
    $product = substr($key, 7);
    $amount = $value;
  }
}

the_mysox1

@ how exactly would this work since i don't know how many boxes there will be?

@ could you please explain your code?

bradgrafelman

Why would you need to know the number of boxes?

the_mysox1

<input type="text" name="amount[5]">

How would i set the stuff inside "[" and "]"?
Please explain since i do knowvery much about arrays.

bradgrafelman

the mysox1;10968536 wrote:
How would i set the stuff inside "[" and "]"?

Well that should be a simple value that uniquely identifies the product, something like an AUTO_INCREMENT column in other words.

Dzeder

mysox, Brad is suggesting this:

echo "<input type=\"text\" size=\"1\" name=\"amount[$product]\" maxlength=\"6\">";

the_mysox1

if the submitting page (1st one) has this code on it for the textbox:

echo "<input type=\"text\" size=\"1\" name=\"amount[$product]\" maxlength=\"6\">";

<SIDENOTE> -- what would the $product variable be from my database? would it just be a unique field like the Primary ID? -- </SIDENOTE>

then if buy.php has this code

foreach($_POST['amount'] as $product => $amount) {
  // do something with $amount given for $product
}

What would I echo?

bradgrafelman

the mysox1 wrote:
<SIDENOTE> -- what would the $product variable be from my database? would it juut be a unique field? -- </SIDENOTE>

Answer:

bradgrafelman wrote:
Well that should be a simple value that uniquely identifies the product, something like an AUTO_INCREMENT column in other words.

the mysox1 wrote:
What would I echo?

I don't understand your question. You can echo whatever you want, I guess... ?

the_mysox1

which variable would i echo in here?

foreach($_POST['amount'] as $product => $amount) {
// do something with $amount given for $product
}

do i echo $product? ammount or somthing else?

bradgrafelman

Again, you can do whatever you want with the data.

Basically, $_POST['amount'] will be an array where the indexes are the values you used in the square brackets in the HTML and the values are whatever the user submits in the form.

the_mysox1

using the below 2 pieces of code my output is blank where would i be going wrong?
first page

echo "<input type=\"text\" size=\"1\" name=\"amount[$id]\" maxlength=\"6\">";

second page

foreach($_POST['amount'] as $product => $amount) {
  // do something with $amount given for $product
  echo $amount;
  echo $product;
}

bradgrafelman

Can you show us the output of the PHP for the first page (e.g. the HTML that gets generated) as well as the output of this:

var_dump($_POST['amount']);

on the second page?

the_mysox1

hmm ok well to start off i had 2 textboxes insted of one and so that was part of the problem and so i feel foolish asking all those qustions now but here is the code from var_dump($_POST['amount']);

array(1) { [3]=> string(3) "321" }

for now i will wait to replay anymore since a) it is time i go and study school and b) i think i can figure it out but it is not yet resolved so i not marking it resolved.

Thanks though for all your patience