PHP validate form arrays

Question

I have a form with inputs that can be duplicated with jQuery. The inputs are like this

<select name='user_id[]'>
    <option value=''>Select a user</option>
    <option value='1'>Alice</option>
    <option value='2'>Bob</option>
</select>
<input type="text" id="drinks1" name="drinks[]" />
<input type="text" id="drinks2" name="drinks[]" />
<input type="text" id="food1" name="food[]" />
<input type="text" id="food2" name="food[]" />

So in my processing script I have the arrays $_POST['userid'], $_POST['drinks'] and $_POST['food']

How can I check if these are empty? The empty() function doesnt work because they look like this when I print them Array ( [0] => ) which appears to be non-empty.

Use var_dump on POST, it may help you understand.

John V.
– John V.

2012-09-11 21:40:21 +00:00
Commented Sep 11, 2012 at 21:40 — John V.
– John V., Commented Sep 11, 2012 at 21:40

Dennis Hackethal · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-11 21:41:25Z

3

Simply loop through the array to check if any field is empty:

foreach($_POST['userid'] as $key=>$value) if(empty($value)) echo "empty";

You can do the same with all your arrays.

answered Sep 11, 2012 at 21:41

Dennis Hackethal

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1 Comment

Robert Over a year ago

I was hoping I wouldn't need to loop through the arrays. I found that !array_filter($array) does the job as well. link

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