Handle GET parameters individually PHP - php

Question

First, I'm still fairly new to PHP, so please forgive my lack of understanding. I'm working on a form that takes in options from multiple selects, and provides the user results based on these options. This form also stores these search queries so that they can be exported later on.
Initially, the form only had four parameters needing to be stored, but now I've added a fifth which is making things not so cooperative. I've searched, and tried multiple different things but I've hit a wall and am seeking assistance.
What is intended to happen is the user selects one, or all, of the available options. The first four selects are simple Yes/No questions with values of 1 for Yes, 0 for No. The fifth is a series of county names with the values being set to their id in the database. The county select options are populated dynamically via Smarty.
Here's the PHP used to store these values.
public function recordFilter($args)
{
$db = DBManager::getConnection();
$_POST['type'] = 'f'; // type of search, find providers
foreach($args as $key => $a)
{
if(isset($_GET['county']) && is_numeric($_GET['county'])
{
$_POST[$key] = $a ? (int)$_GET['county'] : 0; // store value of last parameter, or 0 if not set
}
$_POST[$key] = $a ? "y" : "n"; // store 'y' if $a is set, 'n' if not
var_dump($_POST[$key]);
}
parent::save();
}
Currently what is happening is I'm able to get all the values into this function, and iterate through them. But since I've introduced this fifth field (and through the different approaches I've tried to piece this together) is either my fifth parameter gets set to 'y', which won't store in the database as it's field is an int(2), or the set values of the first four parameters take on the value of the fifth parameter, and wind up having the id associated with the county in their fields.
What I'm looking to learn is what better approach is there to handle this type of problem? I thought perhaps a while loop would be appropriate to iterate through the first four parameters and handle the fifth after those are complete, but figuring out the syntax for that is a bit beyond me. I also tried a switch statement but that simply didn't work. Having the if statement seems to be the big wrench in the situation, as it throws the whole loop off if 'county' is set. Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Since writing code doesn't look properly on comment, I post my guess here. If you describe more of your code, such as what $args is, or how you handle the request, it'll help people to understand your problem.
Treat the last request separately
Since it's a $_GET request, you can't iterate it with $_POST
foreach ($args as $key => $a) {
$_POST[$key] = $a ? "y" : "n"; // store 'y' if $a is set, 'n' if not
}
if (isset($_GET['county']) && is_numeric($_GET['county']) {
$_POST['county'] = $a ? (int)$_GET['county'] : 0; // store value of last parameter, or 0 if not set
}
And the second, I think this is better approach
Don't rely on super global variable
Assign them to another variable and don't forget to refactor the code on parent::save() method
public function recordFilter($args)
{
$db = DBManager::getConnection();
$request = [];
foreach ($args as $key => $a) {
//Sounds like you forgot to check if the $_POST[$key] is set
$request[$key] = isset($_POST[$key], $a) ? "y" : "n";
}
//You don't have to assign a value to super global $_POST with key of type
$request['type'] = 'f';
//Or you may need if statement if this field doesn't a required field
$request['county'] = (int) $_GET['county'];
parent::save($request);
}
And somewhere in your parent class
protected function save(array $request)
{
//this is your bussiness
}
Since I'm just guessing on what $args is, this is better than the better one
Assign it to local variable with filter_input() and filter_input_array()
public function recordFilter($args)
{
$db = DBManager::getConnection();
//This array will be used for validating the input $_POST.
//First, I grab the key of $args then assign the value
//to $validate with the same key to return it as bool
$validate = [];
foreach(array_keys($args) as $key) {
$validate[$key] = FILTER_VALIDATE_BOOLEAN;
}
//Get the post request value
$request = filter_input_array(INPUT_POST, $validate);
//You don't have to assign a value to super global $_POST with key of type
$request['type'] = 'f';
//Receive 'county' only if it's int and greater than 1 and lower than 99
$options = ['options' => ['min_range' => 1, 'max_range' => 99]];
$request['county'] = filter_input(INPUT_GET, 'county', FILTER_VALIDATE_INT, $options);
parent::save($request);
}
Again, the parent::save() method needs to be refactored.