How can I post array keys that have special characters? - php

Question

I have a form that contains some special characters as the keys.
Below is an example:
<input type="text" name="skills[React.js]" placeholder="Years" class="form-control">
<input type="text" name="skills[Responsive-Web-Design-(RWD)]" placeholder="Years" class="form-control">
When I post the form I get 0:value, 1:value
Instead of React.js:value, Responsive-Web-Design-(RWD): value
Are there any workarounds?

Answer 1

To get desired output, text input should be like this
<input type="text" name="skills[]"
placeholder="Years" class="form-control"
value="React.js">
<input type="text" name="skills[]"
placeholder="Years" class="form-control"
value="Responsive-Web-Design-(RWD)">
And in server side, received these values
<?php
if(isset($_POST['skills'])){
$value1=$_POST['skills'][0];
$value2=$_POST['skills'][1];
}
?>

Answer 2

Here's how you could do it using vanilla PHP
<?php
$topics = [
1 => 'React.js',
2 => 'Responsive-Web-Design-(RWD)'
]
?>
<?php foreach ($topics as $key => $label) { ?>
<input type="text" name="skills[<?php echo $key; ?>]" placeholder="Years" class="form-control">
<?php } ?>
The submitted request should contain:
[
'skills' => [
1 => 'first field value',
2 => 'second field value',
]
]
So to get it the way you want it:
$skills = [];
foreach($_POST['skills'] as $key => $value) {
$skills[$topics[$key]] = $value;
}
the $result array would now contain:
[
'React.js' => 'value 1',
'Responsive-Web-Design-(RWD)' => 'value 2'
]