Question

I’m not sure if the topic describes my problem very well but I am creating some HTML elements (textboxes) on the fly with jQuery and I never know how many I will create (it loops through a database). I then want to get all the elements in the code behind and perform some actions (insert them into another database).

I know I can use

string n = String.Format("{0}", Request.Form["hiddenField0"]).ToString();

To get the first textbox but what if Idon’t know how many textboxes I have created and want them all? Their name starts with hiddenField plus an incrementing number.

Is there a way to loop through all elements that has a name that starts with a certain string?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

var dictionary = Request.Form.Keys
     .Cast<string>()
     .Where(x => x.StartsWith("abc"))
     .ToDictionary(x => x, x => Request.Form[x]);

Returns a dictionary containing the keys/values for all form elements that start with “abc”.

Update: The poor OP is using .Net 2.0. So here is the old-school answer:

Dictionary<string, string> keys = new Dictionary<string, string>();
foreach (string key in request.Form.Keys)
{
    if (key.StartsWith("abc"))
         keys[key] = request.Form[key];
}