foreach in PHP - how to transfer the values in a variable?

Question

so the problem is, I have a HTML form with checkboxes as an input-option. I want to save all the selected options as a string(!) in one variable.

I'm pretty sure the solution is a foreach-loop, but mine doesn't work. It only returns the last selected value.

How can I fix this?

HTML

<form action="" method="post">
<label>category:<br/>
     one <input type="checkbox" name ="ber[]" value="one"><br/>
     two <input type="checkbox" name ="ber[]" value="two"><br/>
     thr <input type="checkbox" name ="ber[]" value="three"><br/>
     fou <input type="checkbox" name ="ber[]" value="four"><br/>
</form>

PHP

foreach ($_POST['ber'] as $value) {
$ber = "$value. ', '"
}

The name will be `$_POST['ber']` not `$_POST['category']` and you are overwriting the $ber variable each time round the loop — RiggsFolly, Jul 11 '18 at 14:35
Judging by this `$ber = "$value. ', '"` ... it looks like its about to be stuffed into a mysql query :( — IncredibleHat, Jul 11 '18 at 14:37
@IncredibleHat that is right. you don't seem very happy about that. could you explain why? I would really appreciate to learn more about it. since I'm quite unexperienced :) — Nat_, Jul 11 '18 at 14:40
@Nat_ CSVs should not be stored in a column. 1 value per column. You also should not pass user input to a SQL query. Queries should be parameterized. Take a look at https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3653462/is-storing-a-delimited-list-in-a-database-column-really-that-bad and https://stackoverflow.com/questions/60174/how-can-i-prevent-sql-injection-in-php — user3783243, Jul 11 '18 at 14:41
yes, I see. But let's pretend there was only one value to be added via user-input; wouldn't it help to treat the input with htmlspecialchars() or so? — Nat_, Jul 11 '18 at 14:45
No, `htmlspecialchars` is for outputting to a browser, not for SQL. (It also does nothing to single quotes by default) Also injections can be done a number of ways. It is best to parameterize and let the driver escape everything than guessing how an injection might look. — user3783243, Jul 11 '18 at 14:48

score 7 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 11 '18 at 14:40

7

This is called "implode an array":

$ber = implode(',', $_POST['ber']);
echo $ber;
// or simply
echo implode(',', $_POST['ber']);

edited Jul 11 '18 at 14:40

RiggsFolly

93,638
21
103
149

answered Jul 11 '18 at 14:33

u_mulder

54,101
5
48
64

user3783243 · Answer 2 · 2018-07-11T14:39:38.257

2

You need to concatenate.

$ber = ''
foreach ($_POST['ber'] as $value) {
    $ber .= "$value. ', '"
}

With your current approach $ber = overwrites the previous value.

A better solution though is implode.

edited Jul 11 '18 at 14:39

answered Jul 11 '18 at 14:34

user3783243

5,368
5
22
41

2

And you need to change `$_POST['category']` which does not exist to `$_POST['ber']` – RiggsFolly Jul 11 '18 at 14:36

D P · Answer 3 · 2018-07-11T14:38:46.077

2

You will get the selected checkboxes value in POST array

<?php $_POST['ber']; ?>

Now If you want to assign this array to variable with comma separated

<?php $beer_value = implode(",", $_POST['ber']); ?>

edited Jul 11 '18 at 14:38

answered Jul 11 '18 at 14:37

D P

328
1
8

2

Mine is a pint please, but the OP's is `$_POST['ber']` – RiggsFolly Jul 11 '18 at 14:38

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 11 '18 at 14:39

1

Just change your foreach loop with below foreach loop. You are getting ber in POST not category. So you need to change $_POST['ber'] from $_POST['category'].

$ber = '';
foreach ($_POST['ber'] as $value) {
    $ber .= "$value. ', '"
}

answered Jul 11 '18 at 14:39

Bhavin

2,070
6
35
54

foreach in PHP - how to transfer the values in a variable?

4 Answers4