How can I group the values of $_POST so that I can process it properly?

Question

I have a lot of fieldset in my php file, most of them came from the database that are not processed yet..

I don't know how many fieldset will go so the name of the inputs have numbers, the numbers are the id of the id field in my table

<form action="" method="post">      
    <ul> 
        <fieldset> 
            <li class="span-24 " style="height:100px;"> 
                <div class="span-5 border"> 
                    <a href="a">Lorem Ipsum</a> 
                </div> 
                <div class="span-5 border"> 
                    <input type="text" name="1 company" value="" placeholder="Enter the company name.."  /> 
                </div> 
                <div class="span-5 border"> 
                    <input type="text" name="1 website" value="" placeholder="Enter the website"  />        
                </div> 
                <select name="1 category" class=span-4> 
                    <option value="Lorem1">Lorem </option> 
                    <option value="Lorem2">Lorem </option> 
                    <option value="Lorem3">Lorem ipsum </option> 
                    <option value="Lorem4">Lorem ipsum </option> 
                    <option value="Lorem5">Lorem ipsum </option> 
                    <option value="Lorem6">Lorem ipsum </option> 
                    <option value="Lorem7">Lorem ipsum </option> 
                </select>                       

                <select name="1 address[]" multiple="multiple"> 
                    <option value="Lorem ipsum 1">Lorem ipsum </option> 
                    <option value="Lorem ipsum 2" selected="selected">Lorem ipsum </option> 
                    <option value="Lorem ipsum 3">Lorem ipsum </option> 
                    <option value="Lorem ipsum 4" selected="selected">Lorem ipsum </option> 
                    <option value="Lorem ipsum 5">Lorem ipsum </option> 
                </select>   
            </li> 
        </fieldset> 

        <fieldset> 
            <li class="span-24 " style="height:100px;"> 
                <div class="span-5 border"> 
                    <a href="a">Lorem Ipsum</a> 
                </div> 
                <div class="span-5 border"> 
                    <input type="text" name="2 company" value="" placeholder="Enter the company name.."  />                     
                </div> 
                <div class="span-5 border"> 
                    <input type="text" name="2 website" value="" placeholder="Enter the website"  />    
                </div> 
                <select name="2 category" class=span-4> 
                    <option value="Lorem1">Lorem </option> 
                    <option value="Lorem2">Lorem </option> 
                    <option value="Lorem3">Lorem ipsum </option> 
                    <option value="Lorem4">Lorem ipsum </option> 
                    <option value="Lorem5">Lorem ipsum </option> 
                    <option value="Lorem6">Lorem ipsum </option> 
                    <option value="Lorem7">Lorem ipsum </option> 
                </select>                       

                <select name="2 address[]" multiple="multiple"> 
                    <option value="Lorem ipsum 1">Lorem ipsum </option> 
                    <option value="Lorem ipsum 2" selected="selected">Lorem ipsum </option> 
                    <option value="Lorem ipsum 3">Lorem ipsum </option> 
                    <option value="Lorem ipsum 4" selected="selected">Lorem ipsum </option> 
                    <option value="Lorem ipsum 5">Lorem ipsum </option> 
                </select>   
            </li> 
        </fieldset>

<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit"  />

</form>

But when I access the $_POST, I have no way to group the data properly because the data are not grouped together..

Is there a way to group each fieldset so that I can know where this data will be inserted?

Answer 1

The $_POST names are derived from the name= attributes of the individual input elements. Fieldsets are ignored. You will need to give every element a unique name attribute.

If you need to deal with a variable number of elements, use a naming prefix. Then the individual elements can be named like elem1, elem2, elem3, etc. This way it won't matter how many records you have in the database.

Answer 2

Well, your select names shouldn't have any spaces. And view $_POST['category'] will give you Lorem1. You would use $_POST['address'] to loop through those values... The "1 " is probably throwing your code off.