Is it possible to submit an array without a sequence number?

Question

I see some sites submit data like this form:

<form method="POST" ...>
...
<input name="products[][title]>
<input name="products[][description]>
...
<input name="products[][title>
<input name="products[][description]>
...
</form>

I'm using Laravel 5.5, I have not found a solution. Is there a way to merge into this format, or do I need to handle it myself?

products:
array(
    [0] => array(
        "title" => "",
    ),
    [1] => array(
        "title" => "",
    )
)

Not really how PHP arrays work. [This](https://stackoverflow.com/a/41569106/5405630) answer might help you understand. — DevK, May 09 '18 at 03:59
Finally, I add indexes to the form fields. and I found it using ruby on rails. :) — mino, May 11 '18 at 04:52

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered May 09 '18 at 03:26

The form with fields like

<input name="products[][title]">
<input name="products[][description]">
...
<input name="products[][title]">
<input name="products[][description]">

will send post data for "product" in this format:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [title] => name1
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [description] => desc1
        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [title] => name2
        )

    [3] => Array
        (
            [description] => desc2
        )

)

To make it look like this:

Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [title] => name1
            [description] => desc1
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [title] => name2
            [description] => desc2
        )

)

You need to add indexes in the form fields:

<form method="POST" ...>
...
<input name="products[0][title]">
<input name="products[0][description]">
...
<input name="products[1][title]">
<input name="products[1][description]">
...
<input type="submit">
</form>

In this second form, there is different ways to format an array. For example: if you want a different format using only subset of keys, you can use the php native function array_map( $callback , $source )

$result= array_map(function($item){
    return ["title"=>$item["title"]];
}, $products);
print_r($result);

Will result in:

$result=[
    [
        "title"=>"name1"
    ],
    [
        "title"=>"name2"
    ],
    [
        "title"=>"name3"
    ],    
];

In the "Laravel" way, you can do it with collections:

$collection = collect($products);

$newCollection = $collection->map(function ($item, $key) {
    return [ "title" => $item["title"] ];
});

$result= $newCollection->all();

And the result will be the same

There is no common way to deal with an array with ungrouped columns like the first example. But if you want to convert from the original array without changing the HTML code (without adding indexes), you can do it:

$result=[];
foreach($products as $index=>$product){
  foreach($product as $key=>$value){
    $result[$index/2][$key]=$value;
  }
}
print_r($result);

And also, if you want only some keys (title, for example):

$result=[];
foreach($products as $index=>$product){
  $result[$index/2]["title"]=$product["title"];
}
print_r($result);

Is it possible to submit an array without a sequence number?

1 Answers1