Preserve array when submitting a form to a JSON file

Question

I have a form that takes in data and writes to a JSON form in PHP.

I needed to submit an array as a numeric input but it keeps giving me a string. Is it possible to enable the form to submit as an array via text input box?

Form example:

<input type="text" name="arraytobepushed[]" placeholder="EG: 1000,2000,3000" />

The output is:

{
"obj": [{
   "arraytobepushed": ["1000,2000,3000"]
       }]
}

Answer 1

You could turn the text into an array by using explode() So you would have something like this:

<?PHP
  $myArray = explode(',', $_POST['arraytobepushed[]']);
?>

The explode() function splits everything separated by the first argument (in this case a comma) you pass and puts it into an array.

So if your inputted was 1000, 2000, 3000 your $myArray would look like:

index 0 = "1000" ( $myArray[0] )

index 1 = "2000" ( $myArray[1] )

index 2 = "3000" ( $myArray[2] )

Keep in mind that the values are still strings, not integers. If you want to make them integers you can do this:

$myArray = array_map('intval', explode(',', $_POST['arraytobepushed[]'])); 

This makes all your elements into integers like so:

index 0 = 1000 ( $myArray[0] )

index 1 = 2000 ( $myArray[1] )

index 2 = 3000 ( $myArray[2] )

Answer 2

No. Forms submit text.

PHP special cases fields with [] in the name as fields to be expressed in an array. It has no special case feature to treat a field as a number instead of a string. You need to convert the data explicitly.