I have an associative array that is built dynamically from a MySQL table like so:
array(['p.id'] => 3, ['p.fname'] => 'Bill', ['p.lname'] => 'O\'Reilly')
This is a large array and was built this way for reasons that are too long to go into here. The problem, as you can see is that when we attempt to access the value of ['p.lname'] we get "O\"
Anyone have any ideas on how to get around this without modifying the way the array is built? I am currently stripping the slashes and internal apostrophes as a work around, but would prefer to leave the apostrophes in place and just strip the slashes.
This is complicated by the fact that the output goes into a form input like so:
$field = "<input type='text' name='$input_unique_id' style='width:$width;' value='$array_value' />";
strip slashes
That's right so far.
This is complicated by the fact that the output goes into a form input
And this is a different issue: You use single quotes for the HTML element attributes, so you cannot use them in the attribute value like that*. Attribute values always should be escaped with htmlspecialchars (you will have to set the ENT_QUOTES flag in this case)
*) your current HTML (with stripslashes applied) looks like this:
<input value='O'Reilly'>
The Reilly' part is invalid and thus ignored, this leaves value='O'
You need to loop through each element of the array and strip the slashes as such:
foreach ($arr as $key => $value) {
$arr[$key] = stripslashes($value);
}
Related
I have a bunch of variables that I want to string together. They all need to be tidied up by removing spaces and commas, and converting to dashes (I'm constructing a URL).
I have a very basic understanding of PHP, but I feel my code below could be tidier and more efficient. Could you point me to some resources or make some suggestions please?
Here's what I have:
$propNum = $prop->Address->Number;
$propStreet = $prop->Address->Street;
$propTown = $prop->Address->Town;
$propPost = $prop->Address->Postcode;
$propFullAdd = array($propNum, $propStreet, $propTown, $propPost);
$propFullAddImp = implode(" ",$propFullAdd);
$propFullAddTidy = str_replace(str_split(' ,'),'-', strtolower($propFullAddImp));
echo $propFullAddTidy;
From the output of your existing code, it seems like you may want an output that looks something like:
12345-example-street-address-example-town-example-postcode
In this case, you could use this solution:
//loop through all the values of $prop->Address
foreach($prop->Address as $value) {
//for each value, replace commas & space with dash
//store altered value in new array `$final_prop`
$final_prop[] = str_replace([' ', ','], '-', $value);
/*
Removing `str_split(' ,')` and subbing an array makes the loop "cheaper" to do,
Because the loop doesn't have to call the `str_split()` function on every iteration.
*/
}
//implode `$final_prop` array to dash separated string
//also lowercase entire string at once (cheaper than doing it in the loop)
$final_prop = strtolower(implode('-', $final_prop));
echo $final_prop;
if you remove the comments, this solution is only 4 lines (instead of 7), and is completely dynamic. This means if you add more values to $prop->Address, you don't have to change anything in this code.
A different method
I feel like this would usually be handled by using http_build_query(), which converts an array into a proper URL-encoded query string. This means that each value in the array would be passed as it's own variable in the URL query.
First, $propFullAdd is not necessary (in fact, it may be detrimental), $prop->Address already contains the exact same array. Recreating the array like this completely removes the ability to tell which value goes to which key, which could be problematic.
This means that you can simplify your entire code by replacing it with this:
echo http_build_query($prop->Address);
Which outputs something like this:
Number=12345&Street=Example+Street+Address&Town=Example+Town&Postcode=Example+Postcode
Look I have a form like this:
<form method="post">
<input name="variable[var1][var2]" value="44"/>
</form>
I want to get the value of variable[var1][var2] in PHP using a string like:
$str = "['variable']['var1']['var2']";
echo "{$_POST{$str}}";
Why I need to do that?
I need it because the code that gets the value is totally dynamic and I cannot get or set manually the value using $_POST['variable']['var1']['var2'].
Can you help?
NOTE: I know this is possible to get it using $_POST['variable']['var1']['var2'], please don't ask me about why I'm not using this way. Simply I need to use as above (using $str).
You can use preg_match_all() to get all the indexes in the string into an array:
$indexes = preg_match_all('/(?<=\[\')(?:[^\']*)(?=\'\])/', $str);
$indexes = $indexes[0]; // Get just the whole matches
Then use a loop to drill into $_POST.
$cur = $_POST;
foreach ($indexes as $index) {
$cur = $cur[$index];
}
At this point $cur will contain the value you want.
You're WAY overthinking it. Anything you put in [] array notation in a form field's name will just become an array key. The following is LITERALLY all you need:
<input name="foo[bar][baz][qux]" ... />
$val = $_POST['foo']['bar']['baz']['qux'];
You cannot use a string as an "address" into the array, not without insanely ugly hacks like eval, or parsing the string and doing a loop to dig into the array.
It's hard to believe that this is a requirement. If you could expand more on what you're trying to achieve, someone undoubtedly has a better solution. However, I will ignore the eval = evil haters.
To echo:
eval("echo \$_POST$str;");
To assign to a variable:
eval("\$result = \$_POST$str;");
If you're open to another syntax then check How to write getter/setter to access multi-level array by key names?
So I am working with PHP to pass a PHP array over a jQuery Ajax request to another PHP page. This is quite the task. For some reason, my json_encode is returning an array instead of a string, I am not quite sure why. Here is my PHP code:
$new_spreadsheet = nl2br($_POST['spreadsheet']);
$new_spreadsheet = explode('<br />', $new_spreadsheet);
array_shift($new_spreadsheet);
$new_spreadsheet = array_values($new_spreadsheet);
echo json_encode($new_spreadsheet);
I would show you the output, but it is really long. Basically this is outputting a PHP array which consists of each row on the spreadsheet. This is what I want to have, but the problem is that I don't want the quotes and everything in the array. I am pretty sure I need to run json_decode, but when I do that my code returns an error saying that the parameter needs to be a string. I can tell something is not right, but am not quite sure what I need to change. I would appreciate any advice.
Update: At this point, when I try to loop through the array and print each value, the first array index is equal to a double quote like so: ". There are double quotes in random values throughout the area. I am not quite sure about what is causing this.
If I echo the rows from within the json_encoded PHP array onto the console, I get the following output:
"
correct value
correct value
correct value
"
You're using JSON, which means you have to adhere to somewhat more stringent syntax rules than Javascript's. e.g.
<?php
$arr = array('This' => 'is', 'an' => 'array in php');
echo json_encode($array);
?>
output:
{"This":"is","an":"array in PHP"}
There is NO way to avoid getting quotes on the values, as they're a fundamental requirement of JSON (and Javascript). If you don't want quotes, then don't use JSON.
try only br.
$new_spreadsheet = explode("<br>", $new_spreadsheet);
It will work. and json_enode can never return an array. try var_dump and check.Also make sure before you post, use htmlspecialcharacters.
Is there any way, to make something like:
$elements_string = array()
foreach ($something as $element => $value ) {
$elements_string[$element] = $value;
...
}
And save $elements_string into a db row?
Maybe you guys prefer some other way?
I wan't to read it from the database so I can easly parse the string.
Earlier I was using something similar to:
$elements_string = $element . ":" . $value;
And I was trying to use explode on that, but that makes no sense because I need to have $element and $value in one loop for one element.
Normally you would store each element and value in a different row.
If you must store them in one row (and be sure you really have to do that), then use serialize() http://www.php.net/serialize to turn an array into a string you can store.
You can do other things to like: value:element;value:element - then you first split by semicolon, then by colon.
You could use implode(glue,pieces) to turn an array into a string with a given separator, supposing you have a character you never use. (and explode(delimiter,string) to get it back)
Serializing may be a better option in most cases, though. Use serialize(value) to store it and unserialize(value) to get it back.
I'm trying to change a variable name in a query string, so it's usable by my PHP code.
The query gets posts from an external system, so I can't control that they are posting a variable name with a space in it. And that makes it impossible for me to use the PHP $_GET function.
I need to change variable%20name to ?new1
And I need to change variable2 to new2
There are many variables passed in the query, but only these two need to be changed. The rest can stay the same or even disappear.
So ?variable%20name=abc&variable2=xyz
Needs to end up as ?new1=abc&new2=xyz
Also, they may not be in this order and there may be more variables
So ?variable%20name=abc&blah=123&blah2=456&variable2=xyz
Could end up as ?new1=abc&new2=xyz
OR as ?new1=abc&blah=123&blah2=456&new2=xyz
Either way would be fine!
Please give me the mod_rewrite rule that will fix this.
Thank you in advance!
Parsing the query string with mod_rewrite is a bit of a pain, has to be done with RewriteCond and using %n replacements in a subsequent RewriteRule, probably easier to manually break up the original query string in PHP.
The full query string can be found (within PHP) in $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'].
You can split it up using preg_split() or explode(), first on &, then on =, to get key/value pairs.
Using custom%20cbid=123&blahblahblah&name=example as an example.
$params = array();
foreach (explode("&", $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']) as $cKeyValue) {
list ($cKey, $cValue) = explode('=', $cKeyValue, 2);
$params[urldecode($cKey)] = urldecode($cValue);
}
// Would result in:
$params = array('custom cbid' => 123,
'blahblahblah' => NULL,
'name' => example);