Html Form / php : select with option value = array

Question

How can I use a php array as the value of an HTML <option> ?

eg

<select name='myname'>
  <option value=' array("font-family" => "font-family: 'Yeseva One', serif","font-name" => "Yeseva One","css-name" =>"Yeseva+One")'>
    Font 1
  </option>
  ...
</select>

Answer 1

It kind of depends on what you want to archive in the end. I've got 3 options for you:

1) Json is pretty flexible:

<option value="<?php json_encode($yourArray) ?>">Font 1</option

You can then later on convert Json back to an array with json_decode.

2) If you need the data for server client side scripting, it would probably be a better idea to use HTML5's data attributes:

<option value="value1" data-fontname="Yeseva One" data-cssname="Yeseva+One">Font 1</option>

3) You can use hidden input fields, which will allow you to retrieve the values like $_POST['font1']['css_name'] ect. :

<input type="hidden" name="font1[font_name]" value="Yeseva One" />

You will obviously have to escape your values. But you get the idea.

Answer 2

I think the best approach for you is to put the values with comma separation ie

<select name='myname'>
<option value='Yeseva One, serif'</option>
</select>

and in the php you can implode the result into an array

$array_of_results = implode( $_POST['myname'] );

Answer 3

I think you can serialize the array:

<?php

$arrYourArray = array(
"font-family" => "font-family: 'Yeseva One', serif",
"font-name" => "Yeseva One",
"css-name" =>"Yeseva+One");

?>

<select name="myname">
  <option value="<?php echo serialize($arrYourArray); ?> ">
    Font 1
  </option>
  ...
</select>

Answer 4

Are you trying to create a select form based on the options you have set in your array?

If so, you could do this:

<select name="myname">

    <?php

    $selects = Array('Verdana' => 'font-family: Verdana;', '\'Trebuchet MS\', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif' => 'font-family: \'Trebuchet MS\', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;');

    foreach($selects as $select => $css) {

        echo '<option value="' . $css . '">' . $select . '</option>';

    }

    ?>

</select>