Arrays

I am trying to populate an array with values selected from a multi list box and then retrieve these values and allocate them to variables. I have created a from that allows me to select values from a multi list box and print these to the screen. However, I am having trouble sending these to another script and allocating them to variables. Any ideas?

Regards

 

Please post your current code and explain where the problem is.

Does the name of the multi list box have square brackets in it? Like this?

name="some_name[]"

HTML:

You need this in order to receive all selected values as an array.

 

The following script sets up the form where the user selects recipients, types a subject and also the main body of the message. When the user clicks the "Select recipients" button the correct recipients are printed to the screen.

	$sql2 = "SELECT DISTINCT * FROM `Teacher` ORDER BY ST_Surname ASC";
	include("../includes/php/connect2.php");
	
echo "<form method = 'post' action = $PHP_SELF>";
	echo "<table>";
		echo "<tr>";
			echo "<td>";
				echo "<strong>Please select recipients</strong>";
			echo "</td>";
			echo "<td>";
				echo "<select name = 'multiple_recipients[]' multiple = 'true' size = 6>";
				while ($row2 = mysql_fetch_assoc($rst2)) 
				{ 
					$individual = $row2['ST_Code'];
					echo "<option value = $individual>$individual</option>";
				}
				echo "</select>";
			echo "</td>";
		echo "</tr>";
		echo "<tr>";
			echo "<td>";
				echo "<input type = 'submit' name = 'submit' value = 'Select recipent(s)' />";
			echo "</td>";
		echo "</tr>";
	echo "</table>";
	echo "<br />";
	if (!$_POST['submit'])
	{}
	
	else 
	{
		$recipients = ($_POST['multiple_recipients']); 	
			echo "<table border = '1'>";
				echo "<tr>";
					echo "<td>";
						echo "<label><strong>Recipent(s)</strong></label>";
					echo "</td>";
						
					if (is_null($recipients))
					{
						echo "<td>You have not selected any recipients!</td>";
					}
				
					else	
					{
						foreach ($recipients as $a_recipient)
						{	
							echo "<td>".$a_recipient."</td>"; 
						}
						
					}
				echo "</tr>";
			echo "</table>";
	
	echo "<table>";
	echo "</form>";
	echo "<br />";
	echo "<form method = 'post' action = 'send_individual_msg.php?recipients=".serialize($recipients)."'>";
	echo "<table>";
		echo "<tr>";
			echo "<td>";
				echo "<strong>Subject</strong>";
			echo "</td>";
			echo "<td>";
				echo "<input type = 'text' name = 'subject' size = '56' maxlength = '56' />";
			echo "</td>";
		echo "</tr>";
		echo "<tr>";
			echo "<td>";
				echo "<strong>Message body</strong>";
			echo "</td>";
			echo "<td>";
				echo "<textarea name = 'message' cols = '43' rows = '6'></textarea>";
			echo "</td>";
		echo "</tr>"; 
		echo "<tr>";
			echo "<td>";
				echo "<input type = 'submit' name = 'submit' value = 'Send message' />";
			echo "</td>";
		echo "</tr>";	
	echo "</table>";
	echo "</form>";	
	}

PHP:

When the "Send message" button is clicked I am having trouble retrieving each individual element from the array. The code is as follows:

	$recipients = unserialize($_GET['recipients']);
	$subject = $_POST['subject'];
	$message = $_POST['message'];
			 
	/*$recipient_a = $recipients[1];
	$recipient_b = $recipients[2];
	if (!$recipient_b) 
		{ $recipient_b = "";}
	
	echo $recipient_a;
	echo $recipient_b;	*/
	$r_a = $recipients[0];
	echo $r_a,'<br />';
	$r_b = $recipients[1];
	echo $r_b,'<br />';
	//echo $recipients;
	echo $subject,'<br />';
	echo $message;

PHP:

The $subject and $message print fine, but I've had no luck with the array of recipients.

Regards

 

First you are using form method is post you can't get recipients array using $_GET ( $_GET['recipients']). Try this $_POST['recipients']

Second, I did not find code which is serializing your array

 

Someone else advised the serializing code. Never came across it myself. Any ideas how I would go about using this method?

 

Finding out what is in an array on a form post can be a bit tricky. This code I found somewhere really helped shed a lot of light on arrays:

//PRINT ARRAY VALUES INTO A TABLE
function print_array_data( $TheArray ) {
	// Note: the function is recursive
	echo "<table border=1>\n";
	$Keys = array_keys( $TheArray );
	foreach( $Keys as $OneKey ) {
		echo "<tr>\n";
		echo "<td bgcolor='#727450'>";
		echo "<B>" . $OneKey . "</B>";
		echo "</td>\n";
		echo "<td bgcolor='#C4C2A6'>";
		if ( is_array($TheArray[$OneKey]) )
		print_array_data($TheArray[$OneKey]);
		else
		echo $TheArray[$OneKey];
		echo "</td>\n";
		echo "</tr>\n";
	}
	echo "</table>\n";
}

PHP:

Where you post your form, add this:

print_array_data($_POST);

PHP:

The above will give you a good visualization of the array. In this case, everything in the $_POST

This helped me quite a bit in past. Use it quite a bit today when dealing with sessions.

-Bing

 

You don't have to echo every line of code. Simply close php with ?> type html and reopen <?php

<?php
$sql2 = "SELECT DISTINCT * FROM `Teacher` ORDER BY ST_Surname ASC";
    include("../includes/php/connect2.php");
    
echo "<form method = 'post' action = ".$PHP_SELF.">";
?>
    <table>
        <tr>
            <td>
               <strong>Please select recipients</strong>
            </td>
            <td>
                <select name = 'multiple_recipients[]' multiple = 'true' size = 6>
<?php
                while ($row2 = mysql_fetch_assoc($rst2)) 
                { 
                    $individual = $row2['ST_Code'];
                    echo "<option value = ".$individual.">".$individual."</option>";
                }
?>
               </select>
            </td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
          <td>
               <input type = 'submit' name = 'submit' value = 'Select recipent(s)' />
            </td>
        </tr>
    </table>
    <br />
<?php
    if (!$_POST['submit'])
    {}

etc...
?>

PHP: