Populating dynamic HTML fields with multidimensional array

Question

I have a form that I created with rows of input fields that are created dynamically.

foreach ($data as $k => $v){
print "<tr>Table # $k</tr>";
print "<tr><td>First Name</td><td>Last Name</td></tr>"

    for($i = 1; $i <= $data[$k]['tickets']; $i++){
        print "<tr><td><input name='fname[]' type='text' class='mid_text_data'  value=".$prefill[$k]['first_name']." maxlength='15' /></td><td><input name='lname[]' type='text' class='mid_text_data'  value=".$prefill[$k]['last_name']." maxlength='15' /></tr>";
    }
}

I've created the input fields based on the number of 'tickets' in my $data array, but I would like to prefill the values of fname with $prefill[$k]['first_name'].

My $prefill and $data variables look like:

$prefill = {
[145]=> array(9) { 
    ["first_name"]=> string(5) "John" 
    ["last_name"]=> string(6) "Doe" 
    ["company"]=> string(10) "Big Business" 
    ["email"]=> string(21) "[email protected]" 
    ["photo_op"]=> int(0) 
    ["gala"]=> int(1) 
    ["chairman"]=> int(0) 
    ["prefix"]=> NULL 
    ["table_number"]=>int(60)
} 
[146]=> array(9) { 
    ["first_name"]=> string(5) "Jane" 
    ["last_name"]=> string(6) "Doe" 
    ["company"]=> string(10) "Big Business" 
    ["email"]=> string(21) "[email protected]" 
    ["photo_op"]=> int(0) 
    ["gala"]=> int(1) 
    ["chairman"]=> int(0) 
    ["prefix"]=> NULL 
    ["table_number"]=>int(60)
} 
[147]=> array(9) { 
    ["first_name"]=> string(5) "Stan" 
    ["last_name"]=> string(6) "Derp" 
    ["company"]=> string(10) "Big Business" 
    ["email"]=> string(21) "[email protected]" 
    ["photo_op"]=> int(0) 
    ["gala"]=> int(1) 
    ["chairman"]=> int(0) 
    ["prefix"]=> NULL 
    ["table_number"]=>int(83)
}

}

$data = { 
[60]=> array(5) { 
    ["tickets"]=> int(10) 
    ["gala"]=> int(8) 
    ["chair"]=> int(2) 
    ["ind_id"]=> float(805879) 
    ["photo"]=> int(0) 
} 
[83]=> array(5) { 
    ["tickets"]=> int(5) 
    ["gala"]=> int(5) 
    ["chair"]=> NULL 
    ["ind_id"]=> float(805879) 
    ["photo"]=> int(1) 
}

}

Currently, the form repeats 'John' to each one of my 'fname' fields.

Any ideas how to prefill the fields properly?

Thank you.

Side note: $data[$k]['tickets'] can just be $v['tickets'] in this case, for brevity. — No Results Found
– No Results Found, Commented Jul 25, 2011 at 19:00

Jérémie Picaudé · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-25 18:56:21Z

The relationship between $prefill and $data seems to be like a "has-one". Couldn't you merge these two arrays for a simpler manipulation ?

For example, if you only use tickets from $data, why not putting it into $prefill directly (for instance, directly in your SQL query).

$prefill = {
[1]=> array(9) { 
    ["first_name"]=> string(5) "John" 
    ["last_name"]=> string(6) "Doe" 
    ["company"]=> string(10) "Big Business" 
    ["email"]=> string(21) "[email protected]" 
    ["photo_op"]=> int(0) 
    ["gala"]=> int(1) 
    ["chairman"]=> int(0) 
    ["prefix"]=> NULL 
    ["table_number"]=>int(60), 
    ["tickets"]=> int(10) 
}

If you need all the $data's data, just nest $data parts in the corresponding $prefill parts :

$prefill = {
[1]=> array(9) { 
    ["first_name"]=> string(5) "John" 
    ["last_name"]=> string(6) "Doe" 
    ["company"]=> string(10) "Big Business" 
    ["email"]=> string(21) "[email protected]" 
    ["photo_op"]=> int(0) 
    ["gala"]=> int(1) 
    ["chairman"]=> int(0) 
    ["prefix"]=> NULL 
    ["table_number"]=>int(60), 
    ["data"]=> array(5) { 
        ["tickets"]=> int(10) 
        ["gala"]=> int(8) 
        ["chair"]=> int(2) 
        ["ind_id"]=> float(805879) 
        ["photo"]=> int(0) 
    } 
}

Marc B · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-25 18:59:14Z

0

You're using $i as the inner loop, but are using $k in your array references. Try this:

for($i = 1; $i <= $data[$k]['tickets']; $i++) {
    echo <<<EOL
<tr>
    <td>
        <input name="fname[]" type="text" class="mid_text_data" value="{$prefill[$i]['first_name']}  maxlength='15' /></td>
    <td>
        <input name="lname[]" type="text" class="mid_text_data" value="{$prefill[$k]['last_name']}" maxlength="15" />
</tr>
EOL;

}

Note the use of a HEREDOC - far easier to read the html like this, instead of having it all smooshed into a single line of text.

However, to be strictly correct, you should pass actually be using htmlspecialchars() to escape any HTML metacharacters in your prefill array - otherwise an extra " or ' or > could totally hose your form.

answered Jul 25, 2011 at 18:59

Marc B

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2 Comments

etm124 Over a year ago

Thanks Marc, but the offset of $i will not match up with the keys of $prefill. Excuse the phantom edit, but prefill's keys are IDs of the attendees (unique).

etm124 Over a year ago

I went back and looked at the code that was constructing my $prefill value, and it wasn't even using any type of unique ID for the array. What I ended up doing was as I was creating the $prefill array, I made my own keys that will correspond with $i. THANKS!

user670135 · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-25 18:53:45Z

0

Instead of $prefill[$k] can you try $prefill[i]

answered Jul 25, 2011 at 18:53

user670135

1 Comment

etm124 Over a year ago

Thanks for the resposne. $i would work if my keys for $prefill were actually an incrementing counter that my for loop is using. They are actually arbitrary IDs in the database.

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