PHP POST not working: Returning empty array

Question

Look at the following PHP:

<?php
var_dump($_POST);
?>

I am running this program using the following URL:

http://192.168.2.1:8888/a-s/bootstrap/php/test.php?lookup_word=parrot

And the result I am getting is this:

array(0) { }

What sorcery is this? Why is it returning an empty array while I am feeding it at least one key-value pair?

Answer 1

It's because your not getting the variable you defined in your URL.

you should do it like this:

var_dump($_GET['lookup_word']);

Answer 2

If you are looking for looking_word parameter in $_POST variable, you won't get it as its part of a GET request and will be available in $_GET . If you want to make it general you can check $_REQUEST variable.

<?php
var_dump($_REQUEST);
?>

As others mentioned, please have a look into the GET and POST concepts and $_GET , $_POST and $_REQUEST variables.

Answer 3

It's returning an empty array simply because the $_POST array in empty. You have not POSTED any data for $_POST to fetch.

Passing arguments via the URL sets them to $_GET not $_POST to set data to $_POST you have to POST data via an HTML form, curl etc

try

var_dump($_GET);

Also please learn more about $_POST & $_GET