How can I get post data into an array in CodeIgniter? post items are arrays

Question

In CodeIgniter, I'm trying to accomplish a batch update from form inputs that share the same name. But don't know how to get post data into an array. A simplified view of the form is as follows:

<input name="id[]" value="1"/><input name = title[] value="some-title"/><input name     ="sort_order[]" value="1"/>

<input name="id[]" value="2"/><input name = title[] value="some-tuttle"/><input name="sort_order[]" value="2"/>

<input name="id[]" value="3"/><input name = title[] value="some-turtle"/><input name="sort_order[]" value="3"/>

In my controller I have this for now:

function set_sort_order(){
    $data = array(
        array('id' => 1,'sort_order' => 14),
        array('id' => 2,'sort_order' => 5),
        array('id' => 3,'sort_order' => 9)
    );
    $this->db->update_batch('press_releases', $data, 'id');//works!
    $this->load->view(pr_listing);
}

The array is hard-wired to test in the input_batch function, which is working. So how can I get the post data into an array?

Answer 1

$id = $this->input->post('id');
$sort_order = $this->input->post('sort_order');
$data = array();
foreach($id as $key=>$val)
{
  $data[] = array('id'=>$val,'sort_order'=>$sort_order[$key]);
}

Answer 2

Just by nature of the way the input fields are named using bracket notation (ie fieldname[] ) will cause PHP to automatically populate data from these fields into an array. Simple access them like:

$ids = $_POST['id'];
$titles = $_POST['title'];
// etc.

You can easily combine these into a multidimensional array

$final_array = array();
$length = count($ids);
for($i = 0; $i < $length; $i++) {
    $final_array[$i]['id'] = $ids[$i];
    $final_array[$i]['title'] = $titles[$i];
    // etc.
}
var_dump($final_array);

Note: I did not show any input data validation/cleansing steps in my example. You probably want to verify input data exists, is in proper format, etc. before working with it.