PHP/HTML: Returning input from a text box in a sub-array of the $_POST array?

Question

I have a page for entering/editing the data for a table of
contacts, and would like to be
able to compare the data for two different entries.
Conceptually the simplest way to do
this would be to load two identical copies of the same page,
and have each copy return its
results in a separate sub array in the $_POST array.
For example I have an input which returns a value
$_POST['address']. Is there any simple
way whereby I could instruct this input to return
$_POST['entry_1']['address'] in the
first copy, and $_POST['entry_2']['address'] in the second
copy?
A similar question relates to fields which have sub entries.
At present I encode these
into the name of the return value (for example 'al1' in the
case below), and have to
decode them before I can put the results into the right box,
but it would make things much
simpler -- and therefore easier to understand and less error
prone -- if I could return
$_POST['address']['line_1'] and so on directly.

Answer 1

On Sat, 21 Feb 2009 12:57:27 +0000 (UTC), Joe Makowiec
<[email protected]> wrote:
>On 20 Feb 2009 in macromedia.dreamweaver, Clancy wrote:
>
>> I have a page for entering/editing the data for a
table of contacts,
>> and would like to be able to compare the data for
two different
>> entries. Conceptually the simplest way to do this
would be to load
>> two identical copies of the same page, and have each
copy return its
>> results in a separate sub array in the $_POST array.
>>
>> For example I have an input which returns a value
$_POST['address'].
>> Is there any simple way whereby I could instruct
this input to
>> return $_POST['entry_1']['address'] in the first
copy, and
>> $_POST['entry_2']['address'] in the second copy?
>>
>> A similar question relates to fields which have sub
entries. At
>> present I encode these into the name of the return
value (for
>> example 'al1' in the case below), and have to decode
them before I
>> can put the results into the right box, but it would
make things
>> much simpler -- and therefore easier to understand
and less error
>> prone -- if I could return
$_POST['address']['line_1'] and so on
>> directly.
>
>You can sort of do this by adding square brackets [] to
the name
>attribute of several identically-named input fields:
>
><form name="form1" method="post" action="<?php echo
$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>">
> <p><label
for="streetAddress">Street</label>
> <input type="text" name="address[]"
id="streetAddress"></p>
> <p><label
for="apartment">Apartment</label>
> <input type="text" name="address[]"
id="apartment"></p>
> <p><input type="submit" name="button"
id="button" value="Submit"></p>
></form>
><?php
>if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == 'POST') {
> echo "<p>Post array:</p>\n";
> echo "<pre>\n";
> print_r($_POST);
> echo "</pre>\n";
>}
>?>
>
>What gets returned is $_POST['address'][], where the
second index
>ranges between 0 and the number of same-named input
fields less 1.
>In the code above, 'apartment' would be addressed as
>$_POST['address'][1].
Thanks, Joe,
This is interesting, but not really what I was looking for.
It might be helpful for
entering the results from one page, but it doesn't really
help in separating the outputs
from two copies of the same page. I suppose, though, I could
count the number of (say)
'address' responses, and divide by the number of identical
pages. Then I would know at
terms 0 to 3 belong to the first page, and 4 to 7 to the
second -- provided I always had
the same number of items on each copy of the page, which
ain't necessarily so!
However I doubt whether this is any simpler than the
alternative of encoding the page
number into the name of the variable.