Passed arrays lose all but first element

Question

I have a strange problem. I recently migrated my application from my local xampp installation to a SUSE Enterprise Server 11 and everything is working but this one thing drives me crazy and I can't find a solution.

When passing arrays either through GET or POST using this syntax:

search_dggs.php?latmin[]=52.447529&latmin[]=22&lonmin=17.56&lonmax=22.16

I only get the first element of latmin. Mind you that this is only a simple example I tried after the error occurred in other places where the passing of arrays is necessary.

print_r($_SERVER["QUERY_STRING"]);

outputs

latmin[]=52.447529&latmin[]=22&lonmin=17.56&lonmax=22.16

but

print_r($_GET);

gives

Array
(
    [latmin] => Array
        (
            [0] => 52.447529
        )

    [lonmin] => 17.56
    [lonmax] => 22.16
)

Exactly the same happens with all POST requests.

I'm using PHP Version 5.3.8. I guess the problem is some Server configuration but I couldn't find anything about this problem.

Response to comments:

The same happens if I submit any number of variables.

parse_str($_SERVER["QUERY_STRING"]);
print_r($latmin);

gives

Array
(
    [0] => 52.447529
)

php.ini can be found here

You should be able to see the behaviour in action here

The source file of this php file is

<?php

    $test="latmin[]=52.447529&latmin[]=22&lonmin=23&lonmax=22.16";
    parse_str($test);
    print_r($latmin);
    phpinfo();

?>

I add the same problem locally and never figured out what caused it (it was with Zend Server 5.5 on windows 7) — Nicola Peluchetti, Apr 05 '12 at 09:39
what does print_r(parse_str($_SERVER["QUERY_STRING"])); give you? — Yada, Apr 05 '12 at 09:58
Your code works fine at my server. Maybe this is 'register_globals' problem? Could you post your php.ini config here? — s.webbandit, Apr 05 '12 at 10:03
Well, you tried to remove your XAMPP totally and install one by one again? Sincerely, has no much to do, i think. — Igor Escobar, Apr 07 '12 at 19:04
@cpaulik - a realted question is here - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/353379/how-to-get-multiple-parameters-with-same-name-from-a-url-in-php. Maybe that'll help you. — web-nomad, Apr 11 '12 at 10:05
Code at the link prints `Array ( [0] => 52.447529 )` every time. even u do not pass any params in the url — rdo, Apr 12 '12 at 08:17
This is because I test the parse_str method which should print a 2 element array, but doesn't. The passed variables are contained at the end of phpinfo(); But maybe this was not very clear. — cpaulik, Apr 12 '12 at 10:09

cpaulik · Answer 1 · 2012-04-12T15:18:23.813

5

Well my System Admin did a system update and reboot and the issue is now fixed. No configuration files were changed.

edited Apr 12 '12 at 15:18

answered Apr 12 '12 at 14:48

cpaulik

303
1
3
13

System updates sometimes include PHP updates and all kinds of other goodies. You might never know what fixed it! – citizenen Apr 12 '12 at 17:40
Configuration was looking good as well in my eyes. You might have been running a PHP version which was buggy. – hakre Apr 14 '12 at 09:34

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 09 '12 at 17:26

4

Tested on my server and it works fine for me:

_GET["latmin"]  

Array
(
    [0] => 52.447529
    [1] => 22
)

Look in your php.ini in the Data Handling section and see what the values are. Reset everything to default, restart the webserver and try again. PHP.ini Data Handling defaults

answered Apr 09 '12 at 17:26

gspatel

1,128
8
12

Yes I know that the code is right and it also works on my local XAMPP installation, but not on the new Server. If I don't find a solution I will reinstall and hope that this behaviour will go away, but it would be great to know how something like this can happen. The strange thing is that also parse_str gives the wrong output. My php.ini is posted above and I noticed nothing unusual in the data handling section. – cpaulik Apr 10 '12 at 11:53
We can isolate that it's not a php.ini problem as I've used your exact php.ini and get the correct results (2 latmins in an array). Run phpinfo(); and pass your get parameters to the page and tell me what it shows in the _GET section at the bottom. – gspatel Apr 11 '12 at 17:21

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 12 '12 at 08:21

2

An example at the link prints Array ( [0] => 52.447529 ) every time even no variables were passed. So, seems that you have problem in code that is not linked with this code: `

$test="latmin[]=52.447529&latmin[]=22&lonmin=23&lonmax=22.16";
parse_str($test);
print_r($latmin);
phpinfo();

`

answered Apr 12 '12 at 08:21

rdo

3,872
6
34
51

This is because I test the parse_str method which should print a 2 element array, but doesn't. The passed variables are contained at the end of phpinfo(); But maybe this was not very clear. – cpaulik Apr 12 '12 at 10:08

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 11 '12 at 10:08

0

Hmm.. maybe its somehow related to that critical vulnerability bug ? Does your XAMPP has same PHP version as production? I know there might be similar issues if you post too much data (both in terms of file/post size and param quantity). How about upgrading to 5.3.10 ?

answered Apr 11 '12 at 10:08

Artjom Kurapov

6,115
4
32
42

Hi, Yes my local installation on which it works has the same version as the SUSE Enterprise Server it doesn't work on. So I don't think it is version specific but some strange config problem. I will upgrade or reinstall soon if I don't find a solution. But it would be interesting to get to the bottom of this. – cpaulik Apr 12 '12 at 07:57

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 15 '12 at 18:03

0

Try $_REQUEST instead of $_GET and/or $_POST

answered Apr 15 '12 at 18:03

A.N.M. Saiful Islam

2,118
5
28
34

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered May 03 '12 at 23:58

The most likely cause of this bug is that someone set "max_input_vars" to 0 or 1 in php.ini. "max_input_vars" defaults to 1000, and can be overridden in php.ini.

I encountered the same behavior recently with a different cause -- a security patch someone backported to a PHP 5.2 installation partially implemented "max_input_vars", but missed some important bits. Different cause, same outcome.

Relevant php source code can be found in main/php_variables.c. In php 5.3.8, the rubber was hitting the road in the php_register_variable_ex function.

There's a SAPI "treat_data" hook which php uses when parsing strings like "foo=bar&asdf[]=1&asdf[]=2" -- A different SAPI might have its own implementation of this.

Passed arrays lose all but first element

6 Answers6

Linked