Bug #13718 Updated: form elements with same name problem

ID: 13718 Updated by: mfischer Reported By: jone1941@yahoo.com Status: Bogus Bug Type: Feature/Change Request Operating System: All PHP Version: 4.0.6 New Comment: No, its not 'how it should work'. Image when you write the following code in php: $interests = "something"; $interests = "new"; Would you expect this ending up with $interests being an array("something", "new"); ? Certainly not. So, for you to have an array, like Jani said, append '[]' and you have what you want. - Markus Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2001-10-17 22:19:52] jone1941@yahoo.com Here is an example of what I am talking about, try to imagine the interests being dynamically generated, because it is easy if you already know the names of all of the elements and the form itself: form.html: <html> <body> <form action="post.html" method="post"> Baseball: <input type="checkbox" name="interests" value="baseball"><br> Teams: <input type="text" name="teams" size="40" onFocus="interests[0].checked='1'"><br><br> Football:<input type="checkbox" name="interests" value="football"><br> <input type="submit" value="Submit"> </form> </body> </html> post.html: <html> <body> <?php /** * This is how it should work, interests should be an array **/ echo("interest 1: $interests[0]<br>\n"); echo("interest 2: $interests[1]<br>\n"); /** * Instead, the value of $interests is that of the last * value posted. **/ echo("$interests"); ?> </body> </html> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2001-10-17 20:10:49] sniper@php.net Just name them as 'name=varname[]' (add the []'s in the end) and you'll get an array. --Jani ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2001-10-17 16:47:11] jone1941@yahoo.com The problem exists in the way that php handles the reception of a posted form. If there is more than one element in a form with the same name and it is posted to a php page, php handles this by assuming the last element with that name is the correct value for that variable. In order to provide a proper coexistance with javascript it should treat all variables with that name as elements of an array. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Edit this bug report at http://bugs.php.net/?id=13718&edit=1