Submit html table data with via form (post) - php

Question

I want to post this html table on submit button click.
01 - I want to retrieve the data of this table in php code (server side)
02 - I also want to display this table on another page.
I'm using
PHP, JQuery
I have html table with many rows in form tag.
<form id="frm_test" class="form-vertical" method="post">
<table id="mytable">
<tr>
<td>
<input type="text" name="color_1" value="" />
</td>
<td>
<input type="text" name="color_2" value="" />
</td>
<td>
<input type="text" name="color_3" value="" />
</td>
<td>
<input type="text" name="color_4" value="" />
</td>
</tr>
......
......
......
......
.....
</table>
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="submit" />
</form>
===========
there are 4 input fields in each row (4 cells in each row). and hundred rows in table. So if I get value via name in php code then I have to write lot of code to get 100(rows) * 4 (input fields) = 400 inputs. So my question was "What is the best way to achieve this"

Answer 1

Since you are trying to submit multiple rows of inputs/selects with the same 'name' attribute to a backend, you would need to add square brackets [] to the end of the name value in those inputs (in the table rows).
<form>
<input type="number" name="examplevar" />
<table>
<tr>
<td><input type="text" name="color_1[]" /></td>
<td><input type="text" name="color_2[]" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><input type="text" name="color_1[]" /></td>
<td><input type="text" name="color_2[]" /></td>
</tr>
<table>
<input type="submit" />
</form>
This tells your browser to create an array for that name property.
In php, read it as $_POST['color_1'][0] and $_POST['color_2'][0], and loop as you'd like.
The brackets are in Phil Bailey's answer, but they are not pointed out.
(Added because a recent search led me to this)

Answer 2

To post a form you need to add the action tag which termines the path to go when the form is submitted
<form id="frm_test" class="form-vertical" name="THE_PHP_FILE_TO_POST.php" method="post">
When you want to POST values you should specify input fields with a certain name. If you only want the table is visible you should use the type hidden so the form will POST data, but the inputs aren't visible.
<tr>
<td>
My value
<input type="hidden" name="myValue" value="My value" />
</td>
</tr>
Once your form is posted you can catch the POST data in that PHP file like this:
//THE_PHP_FILE_TO_POST.php
if(isset($_POST))
{
$myValue = $_POST['myValue']; //Contains the string "My value"
//Do something with your POST
}
EDIT Get all table data
if(isset($_POST))
{
foreach($_POST as $inputName => $inputValue)
{
echo $inputName; //This is the name of an input field
echo $inputValue; //This is the value of the input field
}
}

Answer 3

PHP has a an odd naming convention for for table input fields you need to specify the name for the file as an array. For the following SQL Statement using PDO one processing method.
select id,color_1,color_2,color_3,color_4 from colors;
<?php
// Get data
$stmt->execute();
$results = $stmt->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_NUM);
reset($results);
echo '<table>';
while (list(, $i = each($results)) {
echo '<tr><td><input type=hidden name="id[]" value="' . $i[0] . '"></td>';
echo '<td><input type=text name="color_1[]" value="' . $i[1] . '"></td>';
echo '<td><input type=text name="color_2[]" value="' . $i[2] . '"></td>';
echo '<td><input type=text name="color_3[]" value="' . $i[3] . '"></td>';
echo '<td><input type=text name="color_4[]" value="' . $i[4] . '"></td>';
echo '</tr>';
}
echo '</table>
?>
Simplified $_POST print_r output for 4 records:
Array ( [[id] => Array ( [0] => 20 [1] => 21 [2] => 44 [3] => 45 )
[color_1] => Array ( [0] =>red [1] =>green [2] =>yellow [3] =>blue )
[color_2] => Array ( [0] =>purple [1] =>orange [2] =>green [3] =>red )
[color_3] => Array ( [0] =>red [1] =>green [2] =>yellow [3] =>blue )
[color_4] => Array ( [0] =>purple [1] =>orange [2] =>green [3] =>red ) )

Answer 4

You need to add input field in your table to post data.
like
<input type="text" name="fieldname" value="" />
If you do not want to display field then you can make field hidden by using type="hidden"
Add action attribute in your form.
Action attribute indicates the url on which your data will be posted.