Sending multiple checkbox options

Question

I'm creating a used cars website (written in PHP), and I'm stuck on sending advanced search options from form. I have more than 30 of them and I wonder if it's possible, and how, to send them in one variable (for example &options=1,2,3,5,6,10 or some other way..).

Also I've heard that this is possible with "bitwise" but I don't have a clue how to do that. Or if someone have a better idea, please let me know.

Thanks.

Answer 1

You can send them in an array.

<form method="post">
    <input type="checkbox" name="param[]" value="blue" />
    <input type="checkbox" name="param[]" value="red" />
    <input type="checkbox" name="param[]" value="orange" />
    <input type="checkbox" name="param[]" value="green" />
    <input type="checkbox" name="param[]" value="black" />
    <input type="submit" value="Submit" />
</form>

>> $_POST['param']
array('blue', 'orange')

You can even use multidimensional arrays:

<form method="post">
    <input type="checkbox" name="param[color][]" value="blue" />
    <input type="checkbox" name="param[color][]" value="red" />
    <input type="checkbox" name="param[color][]" value="orange" />
    <input type="checkbox" name="param[color][]" value="green" />
    <input type="checkbox" name="param[color][]" value="black" />
    <input type="checkbox" name="param[year][]" value="1999" />
    <input type="checkbox" name="param[year][]" value="2000" />
    <input type="checkbox" name="param[year][]" value="2001" />
    <input type="checkbox" name="param[year][]" value="2002" />
    <input type="checkbox" name="param[year][]" value="2003" />
    <input type="submit" value="Submit" />
</form>

>> $_POST['param']['color']
array('blue', 'green')

>> $_POST['param']['year']
array('2001', '2004')

Answer 2

Place them in an array and loop through them in the script that processes the form.

<form action="yourscript.php" method="POST">
     <label for="option1">Option 1</label>
     <input id="option1" type="checkbox" name="option[]" value="option1" />
     <label for="option2">Option 2</label>
     <input id="option2" type="checkbox" name="option[]" value="option2" />
     <label for="option3">Option 3</label>
     <input id="option3" type="checkbox" name="option[]" value="option3" />
     <input type="submit" name="submit" value=Submit />
</form>

The key is to place your checkbox values into in an array. option[]

Then in your script, you can access the array and loop through the submitted options.

if(!empty($_POST['submit']) //process the form

     if(!empty($_POST['option']) //check to see if any checkboxes were selected
     {
          $options = $_POST['option'];
          foreach($options as $option) //loop through the checkboxes
          {
               //do what you need to do with an option
          }
     }

}