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Asked: 2026-06-11T10:59:22+00:00

I have a contact form with some fields like Name, Email, Subscribe. The Subscribe

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I have a contact form with some fields like Name, Email, Subscribe. The Subscribe is a set of checkboxes (array) that will allow user to select multiple options at the same time.

IMPORTANT:

Please do note that I intend to make the form work in the absence of javascript as well & hence I need the input name as “subscribe[]”. Just take a look at the HTML code of the checkboxes & you will see what I mean.

FULL SOURCE CODE (WITH MY DEBUGGING):

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>AJAX Posting of checkbox array</title>
</head>

<body>

<form id="frm_contact" name="frm_contact" method="post" action="ajax_contact_us.php">

<label for="name">Name</label>

<input type="text" name="name" id="name" class="text"  /><br />


<label for="email">Email</label>

<input type="text" name="email" id="email" class="text"  /><br />

<label for="subscribe">Subscribe</label>

<input type="checkbox" class="subscribe" name="subscribe" value="email" id="subscribe_0" />Email
<input type="checkbox" class="subscribe" name="subscribe" value="sms" id="subscribe_1" />SMS

<br />
<input type="submit" name="sbt_send" id="sbt_send" value="Send" class="btn_submit" />

</form>

<div id="test"></div>

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.min.js"></script>

<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function(){


    $('#sbt_send').click(function(e) {      

        $('#test').html();  

        var subscribe = new Array();
        $(".subscribe:checked").each(function() {
           subscribe.push($(this).val());
        });

        //Prepare data to be sent
        var dataString = $('#frm_contact').serialize();

        $.ajax({

          type: "POST",
          url: "ajax_contact_us11.php",
          data: dataString,
          dataType: 'json',
          cache: false,

          success: (function(response) 
            {
                if(response.error == 0)             
                {               
                    alert('yes');
                }
                else
                {
                    //alert('no');
                    $('#test').html('');                        

                    $('#test').append(  response.message['name'] + '<br />'+
                                        response.message['email'] + '<br />'+
                                        response.check );                                   
                }
            })                                                
        });                 


        e.preventDefault();

    });

});


</script>     
</body>
</html>

//ajax_contact_us11.php

<?php session_start();


$errors = array();

$str = '';

if( !isset( $_POST['name'] ) || trim( $_POST['name'] ) == '' )
{
    $errors['name'] = 'Enter name';
}

if( !isset( $_POST['email'] ) || trim( $_POST['email'] ) == '' )
{
    $errors['email'] = 'Enter email';
}

if( !isset( $_POST['subscribe'] ) || trim( $_POST['subscribe'] ) == '' )
{
    $errors['subscribe'] = 'Check at least one checkbox';
    $str = $errors['subscribe'];
}
else
{
    $str = $_POST['subscribe'];
}


if(count($errors))
{
    $error = 1;
    $message =  $errors;
}
else
{
    $error = 0;
    $message =  "success";
}   

print json_encode(array('error' => $error, 'message' => $message, 'check' => $str));
die(); 

?>

ISSUES:

There are 2 issues here.

  1. If I am using subscribe[] as the checkbox input name, then I am unable to get any of the values of the checkbox, even if they are both checked or just one of them is checked.

  2. If I remove [] i.e. use merely “subscribe” instead of “subscribe[]” for the name of the checkboxes, then I am able to retrieve only one value for the checkboxes, even if two are checked.

I assuming that it would be easy to solve this if “subscribe” is used instead of “subscribe[]” but I really need to use “subscribe[]”. I can make the form work when JS is disabled, but in order to post the both values correctly (in an event both the checkboxes are checked), I need the name to be “subscribe[]”.

So how I can retrieve both the checkboxes values and at the same time use “subscribe[]” as the name?

Please note that I stripped down a lengthy form to its most basic form, for example sakes. I would be adding more checkboxes to the current options & also new set of checkboxes with other names. So I would be applying the solution for this question to the new set of inputs that I would be adding to the form.

I have been working on this since one & half days, tried many solutions from SO & Google, but unfortunately, none helped.

I appreciate all help.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    If you use the [] at the end of the name, you are going to receive an array in the $_POST entry. So if you use name="subscribe[]" you will get $_POST['subscribe'] as an array

    if( !isset( $_POST['subscribe'] ) || !is_array( $_POST['subscribe'] ))
{
    $errors['subscribe'] = 'Check at least one checkbox';
    $str = $errors['subscribe'];
}
else
{
    $str = $_POST['subscribe'];
}
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