HTML Element Array, name="something[]" or name="something"?

Question

I saw something on this site:

Handling array of HTML Form Elements in JavaScript and PHP http://www.ajaxprojects.com/ajax/tutorialdetails.php?itemid=343

It said to put the array in the name property and how to get the input collection's value. For example, name="education[]"

But as I know, an HTML input element is array-ready by name. On the client-side (GetElementsByName) or server-side ($_POST in PHP or Request.Form in ASP.NET).

For example: name="education", so what is the different with or without the []?

Answer 1

PHP uses the square bracket syntax to convert form inputs into an array, so when you use name="education[]" you will get an array when you do this:

$educationValues = $_POST['education']; // Returns an array print_r($educationValues); // Shows you all the values in the array 

So for example:

<p><label>Please enter your most recent education<br>     <input type="text" name="education[]"> </p> <p><label>Please enter any previous education<br>     <input type="text" name="education[]"> </p> <p><label>Please enter any previous education<br>     <input type="text" name="education[]"> </p> 

Will give you all entered values inside of the $_POST['education'] array.

In JavaScript, it is more efficient to get the element by id...

document.getElementById("education1"); 

The id doesn't have to match the name:

<p><label>Please enter your most recent education<br>    <input type="text" name="education[]" id="education1"> </p> 

Answer 2

If you have checkboxes, you can pass an array of checked values.

<input type="checkbox" name="fruits[]" value="orange"/> <input type="checkbox" name="fruits[]" value="apple"/> <input type="checkbox" name="fruits[]" value="banana"/> 

Also multiple select dropdowns

<select name="fruits[]" multiple>     <option>apple</option>     <option>orange</option>     <option>pear</option> </select>