PHP - good practice reading POST variables - php

Question

I am thinking of a good practice to read the client submitted POST data.
For example if I have a post variable that should have the following structure:
array(
[0] => array(
['test'] => array(1, 2, 3),
['test2'] => "string"
),
[1] => array(
['test'] => array(),
['test2'] => "string2"
),
)
Where the indices 'test' and 'test2' should always be present but their values may be empty (array() and "");
The functions that handle the POST data are expecting the correct format, so I have to make sure that the data has not been manipulated.
I could do the following:
$result = array();
if(isset($_POST['myVar']) && is_array($_POST['myVar'])) {
foreach($_POST['myVar'] as $array) {
$new = array('test' => array(), 'test2' = "");
if(isset($array['test']) && is_array($array['test'])) {
foreach($array['test'] as $expectedInt) {
$new['test'][] = (int)$expectedInt;
}
}
if(isset($array['test2']) && is_string($array['test2']))
$new['test2'] = $array['test2'];
}
$result[] = $new;
}
I think you get the idea what I mean. I wonder if there is a better practice of reading the POST data into the expected format.

Answer 1

I usually do this to assure I have default indices:
$par = $_POST;
$par += [
'key' => 'default',
'other' => 'default',
]
If $par doesn't contain those keys, they are set.
In your case, your could do this:
$ready = [];
foreach($_POST as $k => $v){
$v += [
'test' => [],
'test2' => "string2",
];
// Validate if needed
$v['test'] = (array)$v['test'];
$v['test2'] = (string)$v['test2'];
$ready[$k] = $v;
}
Later you can be sure, that $ready will contain values with test and test2 keys.
This is very useful in functions, where you replace a lot of arguments with one parameter array, and then later set default values,