Question

I have a PHP form that pulls data from the database, prints it out in rows, and then allows the user to check which items they need. On save, only the very last option is being sent through to $_POST. Here’s my code:

global $dbc; 

$afQuery = "SELECT fid, facility_name, city, state, country, phone from facilities 
            WHERE uid = '123'
            AND fid != '456'
            GROUP BY fid;";
        $afResult = $dbc->query($afQuery,__FILE__,__LINE__);
        $i = 0;
        while ($affiliated = $dbc->fetch($afResult)) {      
            ++$i;
            echo '<div class="action" style="float:left;">';
                echo '<input type="checkbox" name="affiliated[afid]" id="afid" value="'.$affiliated->fid.'">';
            echo '</div>';
            echo '<div class="facility-name">';
                echo '<input type="hidden" id="facility-name '.$i.'" name="affiliated[facility_name]" value="'.$affiliated->facility_name.'" />';
                echo $affiliated->facility_name;
            echo '</div>';
            echo '<div class="facility-location">';
                echo '<input type="hidden" id="facility-location '.$i.'" name="affiliated[facility_location]" value="'.$affiliates->city. ', ' . $affiliated->state . ' ' . $affiliated->country.'" />';
                echo $affiliated->city. ', ' . $affiliated->state . ' ' . $affiliated->country;
            echo '</div>';
            echo '<div class="facility-phone">';
                echo '<input type="hidden" id="facility-phone '.$i.'" name="affiliated[facility_phone]" value="'.$affiliated->phone.'" />';
                echo $affiliated->phone;
            echo '</div>';
            echo '<div class="clear"></div>';
            echo '<input type="hidden" id="update" name="update" value="' . $affiliated->fid . '" />';
        }

$dbc->fetch is equivalent to mysql_fetch_assoc.

I am trying to save these values to the $affiliated array, but it should have sub-arrays for each selected item, so I can store each value in the database on a separate row. Where am I missing it? I tried a foreach within the while loop, but I got nowhere with that.

Thanks for your help!

* UPDATE *

I have followed @Pinetree’s suggestion and added $i like so:

<input type="checkbox" name="affiliated[afid]['.$i.']" id="afid" value="'.$affiliated->fid.'">

However, now I receive the following output:

Array
(
    [afid] => Array
        (
            [1] => 5289
            [2] => 5290
            [3] => 5291
            [4] => 5292
        )

    [facility_name] => Array
        (
            [1] => Test Company
            [2] => Test Company 2
            [3] => Test Company 3
            [4] => Test Company 4
        )

    [facility_location] => Array
        (
            [1] => Address, State US
            [2] => Address, State US
            [3] => Address, State US
            [4] => Address, State US
        )

    [facility_phone] => Array
        (
            [1] => 555-555-5555
            [2] => 555-555-5555
            [3] => 555-555-5555
            [4] => 555-555-555
        )

)

I need this to instead look like this so I can insert each complete row into a table in the database:

Array
    (
        [0] => Array
            (
                [afid] => 5289
                [facility_name] => Test Company
                [facility_location] => Address, ST USA
                [facility_phone] => 555-555-5555
            )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [afid] => 5290
            [facility_name] => Test Company 1
            [facility_location] => Address, ST USA
            [facility_phone] => 555-555-5555
        )
)

Suggestions?

Answer 1

If I understood correctly, you are echoing multiple rows of inputs.
If that is the case, you are using the same name for the inputs of each row.
When the post happens, it will only take the last value.
You could add another “[]” to each input name:

'<input name="affiliated[afid][]"/>'

or even put the $i in it:

'<input name="affiliated[afid]['.$i.']"/>'

In the post you’d then have:

affiliated
    afid
        1: val
        2: val
        3: val
        ...
    facility_name
        1: val
        2: val
        3: val
        ...
    ...

the integers correspond to the row in the original form. So afid[1] and facility_name[1] are from the same row in the form (and table)

EDIT:
To get the arrays back to the format they had in the form:

$affiliated = array();
foreach($_POST['affiliated']['afid'] as $k => $v) {
    $affiliated[] = array(
        'afid' => $v,
        'facility_name' => $_POST['affiliated']['facility_name'][$k] // same key here
         // other fields
    );
}

IMPORTANT EDIT:

Since you have checkboxes, be sure to explicitly set an index int the input name:

'<input name="affiliated[afid]['.$i.']"/>'

As checkboxes are not posted if not checked, and text fields and similar are, you could end up with a situation, for instance, the second POSTED checkbox (index 1 if starting from 0) will map to the second row in the $_POST, but the checkbox was actually on the third or fourth row in the form itself and the checkboxes before that one were not posted