Count only inputs with value in Laravel 4 - php

Question

I am trying to create a multiple choice quiz in Laravel,
This is the form the admin uses to insert the questions in the database, so this is not to play the quiz!
I used angular to show and hide answer C D E and F, showing only A and B when the page is loaded.
The idea is to create a for loop, so that I can insert every answer that is not empty.
How do I do this in laravel? I was thinking of count(Input::get('answer')) but it doesn't work. And even if it worked it will still count all my answers but not the ones that has a value.
All my answer inputs have the same name.
Please help!
{{ Form::open(['action' => 'QuizController#storeQuestions']) }}
{{ Form::hidden('id', $quiz->id) }}
<div class="form-group">
<label class="form-label">Question:</label>
{{ Form::text('question', Input::old('question'), array('class' => 'form-control')) }}
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<label class="form-label">Answer A:</label>
{{ Form::text('answer', Input::old('answer'), array('class' => 'form-control')) }}
{{ Form::radio('is-correct') }}
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<label class="form-label">Answer B:</label>
{{ Form::text('answer', Input::old('answer'), array('class' => 'form-control')) }}
{{ Form::radio('is-correct') }}
</div>
<!-- De '+' krijgt de showInput van de vorige input! -->
<div class="form-group">
<span class="add-question-button"><a class="plus-input" ng-click="addAnswer(1)">+</a></span>
</div>
<div ng-show="showInput1" class="form-group">
<label class="form-label">Answer C:</label>
{{ Form::text('answer', Input::old('answer'), array('class' => 'form-control')) }}
{{ Form::radio('is-correct') }}
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<span class="add-question-button"><a ng-show="showInput1" ng-click="addAnswer(2)" class="plus-input">+</a></span>
</div>
<div ng-show="showInput2" class="form-group">
<label class="form-label">Answer D:</label>
{{ Form::text('answer', Input::old('answer'), array('class' => 'form-control')) }}
{{ Form::radio('is-correct') }}
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<span class="add-question-button"><a ng-show="showInput2" ng-click="addAnswer(3)" class="plus-input">+</a></span>
</div>
<div ng-show="showInput3" class="form-group">
<label class="form-label">Answer E:</label>
{{ Form::text('answer', Input::old('answer'), array('class' => 'form-control')) }}
{{ Form::radio('is-correct') }}
</div>
<div class="form-group">
<span class="add-question-button"><a ng-show="showInput3" ng-click="addAnswer(4)" class="plus-input">+</a></span>
</div>
<div ng-show="showInput4" class="form-group">
<label class="form-label">Answer F:</label>
{{ Form::text('answer', Input::old('answer'), array('class' => 'form-control')) }}
{{ Form::radio('is-correct') }}
</div>
{{ Form::submit('Next question', array('class' => 'btn btn-primary btn-block')) }}
<button class="btn btn-success btn-block">Finish</button>
{{ Form::close() }}

Answer 1

The way you've structured the form is a bit confusing.
If this is a multiple choice quiz, then the answers should be non-editable (labels), and the user should just be required to select the correct answer using a radio button.
In that case, you can set the radio button value to the answer text (or ID, if you're pulling the available answers from a database).
For example:
<label>Who was the first man on the moon?</label>
<label>
<input type="radio" name="man_on_moon" value="Armstrong" /> Neil Armstrong
</label>
<label>
<input type="radio" name="man_on_moon" value="Aldrin" /> Buzz Aldrin
</label>
<label>
<input type="radio" name="man_on_moon" value="Hanks" /> Tom Hanks
</label>

Answer 2

(New answer, in response to the revised question)
From the way you've worded the question, I've assumed the maximum number of answers for a question is fixed. Let's further assume you identify those with the letters A to F, as in your example.
Given your "answer" field accepts multiple responses, its name should include square brackets. We can identify each individual answer as follows:
<input type="text" name="answer[A]" />
We can identify the correct answer by constructing radio buttons of the form:
<input type="radio" name="correct_answer" value="A" />
Calling Input::get('answer') in your controller will return an associative array, where the key is the answer identifier (A to F), and the value is the answer text.
You can use PHP's array_filter function to filter out the empty answers.
$answers = array_filter(Input::get('answer'));