Counting $_POST - php

Question

I have a big form that contains X amount of posts that has 15 fields per post along with 1 hidden field.
Let's assume I have 14 posts. This means my form would send 211 fields (14x15 fields plus 1 hidden field).
The user does not have to fill in all fields.
I want to count the number of posts that the form sends but I seem to be running into difficulty.
Using count($_POST) returns 152. This leads me to believe that count() is ignoring empty fields.
As a result, using a formula such as (count($_POST) - 1) / 15 would return the wrong result (10.0666) and is inefficient should the number of fields change in the future.
So, does anyone have any ideas as to how to get the proper count of my posts?
My form looks like so:
<form name="scraped" action="<?php echo str_replace( '%7E', '~', $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']); ?>" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="OSscraper_hidden" value="N">
<?php
$inpCnt = 0;
foreach($articles as $item) {
?>
<input type="text" name="title_<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>">
<input type="text" name="name_<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>">
<input type="text" name="url_<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>">
<input type="text" name="img_<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>">
<input type="text" name="pet_<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>">
<input type="text" name="color_<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>">
<input type="text" name="value_<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>">
<input type="text" name="height_<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>">
<input type="text" name="weight_<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>">
<input type="text" name="hair_<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>">
<input type="text" name="eyes_<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>">
<input type="text" name="race_<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>">
<input type="text" name="phone_<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>">
<input type="text" name="address_<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>">
<input type="text" name="zip_<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>">
<?php
$inpCnt++;
} ?>
<input type="submit" value="Submit">
</form>

Answer 1

Change your form to look like:
<input type="text" name="foo[<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>][title]">
<input type="text" name="foo[<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>][name]">
<input type="text" name="foo[<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>][url]">
Then you will get:
$_POST['foo'] = [
0 => ['title' => '...', 'name' => '...', 'url' => '...'],
1 => ...,
...
];
It saves you from having to do the grouping yourself, and is easier to count or iterate over the input.

Answer 2

why not just count($articles)*15 and echo into a hidden input. You are using another hidden input anyway....

Answer 3

Try this code, and demo is here
Please just use the idea not the exact copy.
<?php
error_reporting(E_ALL ^ E_NOTICE);
//debugging
if(#$_POST['submit'] == 'Submit'){
echo '<pre>';
print_r($_POST);
echo '</pre>';
echo "<br>\n";
echo 'Number of posts = count($_POST["posts"])='.count(#$_POST['posts'])."<br>\n";
//finding number of posts that are set and not empty
$count = 0;
foreach($_POST['posts'] as $v1){
//$v is an array
foreach($v1 as $v1k=> $v1v){
if(strlen($v1v) > 0){
++$count;
$inputs[$v1k] = $v1v;
}
}
}
echo 'Count of non-empty posts = $count = '.$count."<br>\n";
echo '<pre>';
print_r($inputs);
echo '</pre>';
}
?>
<form name="scraped" action="" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="OSscraper_hidden" value="N">
<?php
$articles =array('test');
$inpCnt = 0;
foreach($articles as $item) {
?>
<input type="text" name="posts[][title_<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>]">
<input type="text" name="posts[][name_<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>]">
<input type="text" name="posts[][url_<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>]">
<input type="text" name="posts[][img_<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>]">
<input type="text" name="posts[][pet_<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>]">
<input type="text" name="posts[][color_<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>]">
<input type="text" name="posts[][value_<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>]">
<input type="text" name="posts[][height_<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>]">
<input type="text" name="posts[][weight_<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>]">
<input type="text" name="posts[][hair_<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>]">
<input type="text" name="posts[][eyes_<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>]">
<input type="text" name="posts[][race_<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>]">
<input type="text" name="posts[][phone_<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>]">
<input type="text" name="posts[][address_<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>]">
<input type="text" name="posts[][zip_<?php echo $inpCnt; ?>]">
<?php
$inpCnt++;
} ?>
<input type="submit" value="Submit" name="submit">
</form>