How can i get multiple value from POST variable using same name - php

Question

When user inputs text in 'ctext' field and press accept, I want to fill the value=" " field with user input, i achieved this but it fills all the value fields of same name in the page, how can i achieve it for different value of different ctext input? Anyone please give me solution with example, Many thanks
<?php
$connect = mysqli_connect('localhost', 'root', 'root123', 'font');
$query = 'SELECT * FROM pens ORDER by id ASC';
$result = mysqli_query($connect, $query);
if($result):
if(mysqli_num_rows($result)>0):
$i=0;
while( $pen = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result) ):
?>
<form method="post" action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];?>?action=add&id=<?php echo $pen['id']; ?>">
<div class="name pen-<?php echo $pen['id']; ?>">
<input type="text" name="ctext[]" class="form-control" placeholder="Type your text here" value="<?php $ctext = false; if(isset($_POST['ctext'])){ $ctext = $_POST['ctext']; } echo $ctext[$i]; ?>"></input>
<input type="hidden" name="id" value="<?php $pen['id']?>"></input>
</div>
<div class="btn-custom">
<input type="submit" name="add_to_cart" class="btn btn-block" value="Accept"></input>
</div>
</form>
<?php
$i++;
endwhile;
endif;
endif;
?>

Answer 1

I hope I understand what you want. You want to access the ctext for each individual $pen when printing the corresponding form.
You just need to name your <input> with a unique name and then access that value when printing. A possible solution is this:
<input type="text" name="ctext[<?php echo $pen['id']; ?>]" class="form-control" placeholder="Type your text here" value="<?php $ctext = ''; if(isset($_POST['ctext'][$pen['id']])){ $ctext = $_POST['ctext'][$pen['id']]; } echo $ctext; ?>"></input>
What does it do?
name="ctext[<?php echo $pen['id']; ?>]" ensures a unique name for each $pen. For a $pen with id 1 this will result in name="ctext[1]".
if(isset($_POST['ctext'][$pen['id']])){ $ctext = $_POST['ctext'][$pen['id']]; } uses $pen['id'] to look up the corresponding value in $_POST['ctext'].
By the way, when outputting user input you should always escape it, e.g. with htmlspecialchars. This will look like this: echo htmlspecialchars($ctext); That way malicious input like "><script>alert('Hello!')</script> won't execute the javascript.
Update: as requested a solution using session to store data:
<?php
$connect = mysqli_connect('localhost', 'root', 'root123', 'font');
$query = 'SELECT * FROM pens ORDER by id ASC';
$result = mysqli_query($connect, $query);
if($result):
if(mysqli_num_rows($result)>0):
session_start();
if (isset($_POST['ctext'])) {
$_SESSION['ctext'][$_POST['id']] = $_POST['ctext'];
}
while( $pen = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result) ):
?>
<form method="post" action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];?>?action=add&id=<?php echo $pen['id']; ?>">
<div class="name pen-<?php echo $pen['id']; ?>">
<input type="text" name="ctext" class="form-control" placeholder="Type your text here" value="<?php $ctext = ''; if(isset($_SESSION['ctext'][$pen['id']])){ $ctext = $_SESSION['ctext'][$pen['id']]; } echo htmlspecialchars($ctext); ?>"></input>
<input type="hidden" name="id" value="<?php echo $pen['id']?>"></input>
</div>
<div class="btn-custom">
<input type="submit" name="add_to_cart" class="btn btn-block" value="Accept"></input>
</div>
</form>
<?php
endwhile;
endif;
endif;
Note: I removed the now unnecessary counter $i. The session handling is mainly done before the while loop (start a session and store POST data). During output the values from the session are used. The name of the input is not an array anymore.

Answer 2

Change name of an input to an array.like this . When you submit the form you will get these values as an array. Give it a try
<input type="text" name="ctext[]" class="form-control" placeholder="Type your text here"></input>

Answer 3

I guess your code is misleading you, your form is in while loop so once any of the ctext input is filled your variable $_POST['ctext'] is set on server side and according to your code it sets all the value of ctext once accept is pressed.
You can have different names as a solution or an array indexing in input field name=“ctext[]” to avoid this.