How to save many text inputs as a PHP string?

Question

Basically, I need to construct a large string out of a bunch on HTML text inputs.

Firstly, these text inputs are being dynamically created by a button, therefore, there can be any amount of inputs as the user wants.

Here is the format of each individual dynamically created text input:

[question]   [incorrect-answer1]
             [incorrect-answer2]
             [incorrect-answer3]
             [correct-answer]
             Remove

Each item surrounded by [] is a text input, along with 'Remove' being a button that removes that current question.

This is my whole jQuery function that is creating each dynamic question:

function dynamicForm () {

//set a counter
var i = $('.dynamic-input#form-step2').length + 1;
//alert(i);
//add input
$('a#add').click(function () {
    $('<table><tr><td><p><span class="left"><input type="text" class="dynamic-input" name="items[]" id="' + i + '" placeholder="Question" /></span>' +
        '<span class="right"><input type="text" class="dynamic-input" name="items[]" id="' + i + '" placeholder="Distraction 1" /><br /><input type="text" class="dynamic-input" name="items[]" id="' + i + '" placeholder="Distraction 2" /><br /><input type="text" class="dynamic-input" name="items[]" id="' + i + '" placeholder="Distraction 3" /><br /><input type="text" class="dynamic-input" name="items[]" id="' + i + '" placeholder="Correct Answer" /><br /><a href="#">Remove</a></span></p></td></tr></table>').fadeIn("slow").appendTo('#extender');
    i++;

    $("a:contains('Remove')").click(function () {
            $(this).parent().parent().remove();
    });

    return false;
});


//fadeout selected item and remove
$("#form-step2.dynamic-input").on('click', 'a', function () {
    $(this).parent().fadeOut(300, function () {
        $(this).empty();
        return false;
    });
});
}

And this is the simple little button that creates each question:

<a id="add" href="#">Add Question</a>

What I need to achieve:

Once a button is pressed, I need to somehow gather all the question elements, and save them into a string. This is the format that each question must be saved into:

question1,incorrect-answer1,incorrect-answer2,incorrect-answer3,correct-answer
question1,incorrect-answer1,incorrect-answer2,incorrect-answer3,correct-answer
question2,incorrect-answer1,incorrect-answer2,incorrect-answer3,correct-answer

As you can see above, there are a total of 3 questions. Each question must be separated by a line-break, being '\n'. The order must be question, 3 incorrect answers, following by the correct answer; all separated by commas.

Of course, I am not asking anybody to do this for me. I just need some guidance and support since I am still a newbie to PHP and jQuery (learning PHP for 8 weeks, jQuery for 2 weeks). Most of my code was constructed by already existing code from here at Stack Overflow, and other online sources.

All help is greatly appreciated

Line break is \n not /n.

Barmar
– Barmar

2013-08-16 03:19:32 +00:00
Commented Aug 16, 2013 at 3:19 — Barmar
– Barmar, Commented Aug 16, 2013 at 3:19
Thanks. I made an edit to change that.

Fizzix
– Fizzix

2013-08-16 03:20:22 +00:00
Commented Aug 16, 2013 at 3:20 — Fizzix
– Fizzix, Commented Aug 16, 2013 at 3:20

Barmar · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-16 03:26:43Z

3

Use array_chunk() to convert $_POST['items'] into a nested array, so that each element is one set of question and answers. Loop through this array, using implode() to join the elements of the sub-arrays with commas, and construct a new array containing these strings. Then use implode() on this new array to connect them with newlines.

You said you aren't asking anyone to do it for you, so I'm not including code here. Read the documentation of these functions, and it should be pretty straightforward.

answered Aug 16, 2013 at 3:26

Barmar

789k57 gold badges555 silver badges669 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

jexx2345 · Accepted Answer · 2013-08-16 03:53:56Z

1

As a perhaps more flexible alternative to array_chunk (since you may have more "incorrect answers" in the future and that would require to keep updating the array_chunk size param), you can go with the following:

In your javascript snippet, where you are populating the DOM elements, you can populate your name attribute as a multidimensional array (I renamed from items to questions for conceptual purposes):

$('<table><tr><td><p><span class="left"><input type="text" class="dynamic-input" name="questions[' +i +'][]" id="' + i + '" placeholder="Question" /></span>' +
        '<span class="right"><input type="text" class="dynamic-input" name="questions[' +i +'][]" id="' + i + '" placeholder="Distraction 1" /><br /><input type="text" class="dynamic-input" name="questions[' +i +'][]" id="' + i + '" placeholder="Distraction 2" /><br /><input type="text" class="dynamic-input" name="questions[' +i +'][]" id="' + i + '" placeholder="Distraction 3" /><br /><input type="text" class="dynamic-input" name="questions[' +i +'][]" id="' + i + '" placeholder="Correct Answer" /><br /><a href="#">Remove</a></span></p></td></tr></table>').fadeIn("slow").appendTo('#extender');

So this would be an array of question arrays.

In the PHP side (similar to the array_chunk post), you can use implode as such:

if(!empty($_POST['questions'])) {
    foreach($_POST['questions'] as $question) {
        echo implode(',',$question) ."\n";
    }
}

answered Aug 16, 2013 at 3:53

jexx2345

6782 gold badges8 silver badges15 bronze badges

3 Comments

Fizzix Over a year ago

Thank you for your help. I have decided to use your method since I think it is great, and is open to any changes that I may need to do in the future (such as adding more answers like you said). Although, the line-break seems to not be working when it echos to the page. Any suggestions to why this is happening?

jexx2345 Over a year ago

Yeap - "\n" will not be reflected in HTML. For HTML, you should use "<br />"

Fizzix Over a year ago

I got it saving to my My SQL database, and the line-breaks are working perfectly. Thank you very much for your help. I will be changing your answer to the correct answer since this helped me quite alot :)

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

How to save many text inputs as a PHP string?

2 Answers 2

Comments

3 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

3 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related