Add a key in array even value is empty PHP

Question

I have a form in which can be a few lines of inputs the same a few times, like this,

<input type="text" name="company[]"><input type="text" name="type[]">
<input type="text" name="company[]"><input type="text" name="type[]">
<input type="text" name="company[]"><input type="text" name="type[]">

Now I have to input these fields to the database, so I looped through the the input fields and it works fine.

But I have one problem: sometimes the fields in the loop can be empty. I.e. the company will have a value but not the type. So how can I make so that the loop should output the empty value in a key like this:

Array(
   company => array(
          [0] => string0
          [1] => string1
          [2] => string2
     )
   type => array(
          [0] => 
          [1] => string1
          [2] => string2
     )
)

So you can see that first key of type is empty, so how can I achieve that,

I'm trying to do this but no result,

$postFields = array('company', 'type');
$postArray = array();
foreach($postFields as $postVal){
    if($postVal == ''){
        $postArray[$postVal] = '';
    }
    else {
        $postArray[$postVal] = $_POST[$postVal];
    }
}

Appreciate any help,

It's type="text", an empty value will be in the $_POST array... I'm struggling to see the problem / desired output here... — Wrikken
– Wrikken, Commented Jun 28, 2012 at 21:05
Ah, unless it's disabled indeed. ANy compelling reason why? It would mean you have to set up name's like name="company[1]" etc. to keep company and type values related to each other. — Wrikken
– Wrikken, Commented Jun 28, 2012 at 21:06

nickb · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-28 21:05:06Z

2

This HTML:

<input type="text" name="company[]"><input type="text" name="type[]">

Will dynamically populate the keys of your array. I think you will never get an empty 0 element, as long as one of the text fields was submitted. Instead, you'd end up with mismatching lengths of arrays, which you won't be able to determine which number was omitted.

The solution is to explicitly state the keys in the HTML, like so:

<input type="text" name="company[0]"><input type="text" name="type[0]">
<input type="text" name="company[1]"><input type="text" name="type[1]">
<input type="text" name="company[2]"><input type="text" name="type[2]">

Now, you can loop over the arrays and if a certain key isn't set, you can set it to an empty string:

foreach( range( 0, 2) as $i) {
    if( !isset( $_POST['company'][$i]))
        $_POST['company'][$i] = "";

    if( !isset( $_POST['type'][$i]))
        $_POST['type'][$i] = "";
}

answered Jun 28, 2012 at 21:05

nickb

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1 Comment

itsme Over a year ago

This wasn't my right answer, but gave the right direction where my problem is, thanks anyways.

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