Question

Using Drupal 6.20.

We can setup some form elements like this:-

<input type="select" name="somename[]"><option>ohai</option></select>

and then cycle through them in PHP with

foreach ($somename as $name) { ... }

I am trying to do the same in Drupal. I have a list of select-elements that are identical in style. The number of elements may change in the future so the form processing has to be dynamic.

If I use the above approach, each element will overwrite the preceding one, so that ultimately only one element is printed to the screen. I can’t write name="somename[$someid]" as that will not interpret $somename as an array.
Does Drupal support this or am I doing it worng?

Also, Is there any other alternative to achieve the same?

Answer 1

Here is an example to achieve what you are trying to do.

function test_form( &$form_state )
{
  $form = array();
  $delta = 0;
  $form["test_field"]["#tree"] = TRUE;
  $form["test_field"][$delta++] = array(
        "#type" => "textfield",
        "#title" => "Title",
    );
  $form["test_field"][$delta++] = array(
        "#type" => "textfield",
        "#title" => "Title",
    );
  $form["test_field"][$delta++] = array(
        "#type" => "textfield",
        "#title" => "Title",
    );
  $form["submit"] = array(
        "#type" => "submit",
        "#value" => "Submit",
    );
  return $form;
}

In your submit & validate function, you will get an array of values under your field’s name.

Remember, enabling #tree on your element is the key to this approach. Also Drupal’s form API is one of the best forms framework I have worked with.

Hope this helps.