Question

I have a two dimensional array in PHP that prints the index of the array instead of the value.

Here’s where I set up the array.

for($i = 1;$i <= $numOfCriteria;$i++)
            {
                for($j = 1;$j <= $numOfScores;$j++)
                {
                    $description[$i][$j] = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['descriptionPosition'.$i.$j]);
                }
            }

Here’s the SQL query.

for($i = 1;$i <= $numOfCriteria;$i++)
            {
                for($j = 1;$j <= $numOfScores;$j++)
                {
                    $this->Instructor->query("INSERT INTO Criteria_Description (description,CriteriaID,ScoreID) VALUES (\"$description[$i][$j]\",\"$criteriaID[$i]\", \"$scoreID[$j]\")");
                }
            }

This is what it puts in the database.

            Array[1]        
            Array[2]        
            Array[1]        
            Array[2]        

Thanks for any replies in advance.

Answer 1

That is because the parser of PHP doesn’t recognize multiple array indexes inside your string correctly.

If you try this:

<?php
$foo = array(array(array("bar")));
echo "wrong: \"$foo[0][0][0]\"" . PHP_EOL;
echo "right: \"{$foo[0][0][0]}\"" . PHP_EOL;

You’ll realize:

wrong: "Array[0][0]"
right: "bar"

To fix this, as illustrated above, use the "{$var}" syntax. The curly braces around your variable expression ensure that the parser handles it correctly:

$this->Instructor->query("INSERT INTO Criteria_Description (description,CriteriaID,ScoreID) VALUES (\"{$description[$i][$j]}\",\"{$criteriaID[$i]}\", \"{$scoreID[$j]}\")");