Question

I have a table as follows :

<table>
  <thead>
     <th>PRODUCT TYPE</th>
     <th>QUANTITY</th>
     <th>WEIGHT</th>
     <th>WEIGHT PRICE</th>
     <th>TOTAL</th>
  </thead>
  <tr>
     <td>DRINKS</td>
     <input type="hidden" name="product[]" value="1" />
     <td><input type="text" name="qty[]" /></td>
     <td>LITER</td>
     <input type="hidden" name="unitPrice[]" value="34.92" />
     <td><input type="text" name="total[]" readonly="readonly" /></td>
   </tr>
  <tr>
     <td>DRY FOODS</td>
     <input type="hidden" name="product[]" value="1" />
     <td><input type="text" name="qty[]" /></td>
     <td>KG</td>
     <input type="hidden" name="unitPrice[]" value="16.30" />
     <td><input type="text" name="total[]" readonly="readonly" /></td>
   </tr>
  <tr>
     <td>FRESH FOOD</td>
     <input type="hidden" name="product[]" value="1" />
     <td><input type="text" name="qty[]" /></td>
     <td>TON</td>
     <input type="hidden" name="unitPrice[]" value="26.45" />
     <td><input type="text" name="total[]" readonly="readonly" /></td>
   </tr>
  <tr>
     <td>SWEET CONFECTIONARY</td>
     <input type="hidden" name="product[]" value="1" />
     <td><input type="text" name="qty[]" /></td>
     <td>TON</td>
     <input type="hidden" name="unitPrice[]" value="65.10" />
     <td><input type="text" name="total[]" readonly="readonly" /></td>
   </tr>
</table>

So, here is the question :
I want to check input value qty, if qty is filled then will take the related product value. But, the important things is no required to fill all those fields. Employees can fill one field or more!

Could anybody conduct to me to how can we handle this form with PHP?

Answer 1

Code like this is problematic because the elements of the product and qty arrays must be kept in sync, but the HTML4 (and HTML5) model for form submission does not say that these qty controls have to be successful. Therefore the browser might choose not to submit their values, which will mess up cross-array indexing.

The cleanest solution would be to explicitly specify the indexes for the arrays in each control’s name:

  <tr>
     <td>DRINKS</td>
     <input type="hidden" name="product[0]" value="1" />
     <td><input type="text" name="qty[0]" /></td>
     <td>LITER</td>
     <input type="hidden" name="unitPrice[0]" value="34.92" />
     <td><input type="text" name="total[0]" readonly="readonly" /></td>
   </tr>
  <tr>
     <td>DRY FOODS</td>
     <input type="hidden" name="product[1]" value="1" />
     <td><input type="text" name="qty[1]" /></td>
     <td>KG</td>
     <input type="hidden" name="unitPrice[1]" value="16.30" />
     <td><input type="text" name="total[1]" readonly="readonly" /></td>
   </tr>

This way you can then do

foreach ($POST['product'] as $i => $val) {
    if (!empty($POST['qty'][$i])) {
        // the product has a nonzero quantity
    }
}

Another option that you might want to consider is this:

  <tr>
     <td>DRINKS</td>
     <input type="hidden" name="product[0][product]" value="1" />
     <td><input type="text" name="product[0][qty]" /></td>
     <td>LITER</td>
     <input type="hidden" name="product[0][unitPrice]" value="34.92" />
     <td><input type="text" name="product[0][total]" readonly="readonly" /></td>
   </tr>

which would work along with

foreach ($POST['product'] as $product) {
    if (!empty($product['qty'])) {
        // the product has a nonzero quantity
    }
}