If you are trying to handling multiple form inputs with same name, then you must assign the `'flags' => FILTER_REQUIRE_ARRAY` to the definitions entry.
Example, you have a html form as such:
<form>
<input name="t1[]" value="Some string One" />
<input name="t1[]" value="Another String Two" />
</form>
Your definitions array will look a little like this:
$args = array(
't1' => array(
'name' => 't1',
'filter' => FILTER_SANITIZE_STRING,
'flags' => FILTER_REQUIRE_ARRAY)
);
filter_input_array
(PHP 5 >= 5.2.0)
filter_input_array — Gets external variables and optionally filters them
Description
This function is useful for retrieving many values without repetitively calling filter_input().
Parameters
- type
-
One of INPUT_GET, INPUT_POST, INPUT_COOKIE, INPUT_SERVER, INPUT_ENV, INPUT_SESSION, or INPUT_REQUEST.
- definition
-
An array defining the arguments. A valid key is a string containing a variable name and a valid value is either a filter type, or an array optionally specifying the filter, flags and options. If the value is an array, valid keys are filter which specifies the filter type, flags which specifies any flags that apply to the filter, and options which specifies any options that apply to the filter. See the example below for a better understanding.
This parameter can be also an integer holding a filter constant. Then all values in the input array are filtered by this filter.
Return Values
An array containing the values of the requested variables on success, or FALSE on failure. An array value will be FALSE if the filter fails, or NULL if the variable is not set. Or if the flag FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE is used, it returns FALSE if the variable is not set and NULL if the filter fails.
Examples
Example #1 A filter_input_array() example
<?php
error_reporting(E_ALL | E_STRICT);
/* data actually came from POST
$_POST = array(
'product_id' => 'libgd<script>',
'component' => '10',
'versions' => '2.0.33',
'testscalar' => array('2', '23', '10', '12'),
'testarray' => '2',
);
*/
$args = array(
'product_id' => FILTER_SANITIZE_ENCODED,
'component' => array('filter' => FILTER_VALIDATE_INT,
'flags' => FILTER_REQUIRE_ARRAY,
'options' => array('min_range' => 1, 'max_range' => 10)
),
'versions' => FILTER_SANITIZE_ENCODED,
'doesnotexist' => FILTER_VALIDATE_INT,
'testscalar' => array(
'filter' => FILTER_VALIDATE_INT,
'flags' => FILTER_REQUIRE_SCALAR,
),
'testarray' => array(
'filter' => FILTER_VALIDATE_INT,
'flags' => FILTER_REQUIRE_ARRAY,
)
);
$myinputs = filter_input_array(INPUT_POST, $args);
var_dump($myinputs);
echo "\n";
?>
The above example will output:
array(6) {
["product_id"]=>
array(1) {
[0]=>
string(17) "libgd%3Cscript%3E"
}
["component"]=>
array(1) {
[0]=>
int(10)
}
["versions"]=>
array(1) {
[0]=>
string(6) "2.0.33"
}
["doesnotexist"]=>
NULL
["testscalar"]=>
bool(false)
["testarray"]=>
array(1) {
[0]=>
int(2)
}
}
See Also
- filter_input() - Gets a specific external variable by name and optionally filters it
- filter_var_array() - Gets multiple variables and optionally filters them
filter_input_array
26-Jan-2009 03:35
12-Aug-2008 07:42
@iam4webwork
This is not specific to filter_input. If you have an element in HTML called names[], it can be accessed by calling $_POST['names'].
08-Jul-2008 01:37
Looks like filter_input_array isn't aware of changes to the input arrays that were made before calling filter_input_array. Instead, it always looks at the originally submitted input arrays.
So this will not work:
$_POST['my_float_field'] = str_replace(',','.',$_POST['my_float_field']);
$args = array('my_float_field',FILTER_VALIDATE_FLOAT);
$result = filter_input_array(INPUT_POST, $args);
10-Sep-2007 05:32
The above example will actually output "NULL" because of the undefined variable doesnotexist - see http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=42608.
22-Aug-2007 05:10
extract() is a very convenient way of copying all those variables to the local scope. (see http://www.php.net/extract)
08-Jun-2007 08:02
The above example raises other questions such as how one would validate an html array. In the input form each input tag that refers to an html array would be named for example testarray[]. However, after the form is submitted, the syntax for validating the values is different from the expected $_POST['testarray[]']. Instead one has to drop the braces and validate as follows, assuming that testarray[] is supposed to be an html array of numerical values:
Valid test:
echo '*';
echo filter_input(
INPUT_POST,
'testarray',
FILTER_VALIDATE_INT,
FILTER_REQUIRE_ARRAY
);
echo '*';
But the following is an invalid test that results in 2 consequtive asterisks only!
echo '*';
echo filter_input(INPUT_POST,
'testarray[]',
FILTER_VALIDATE_INT,
FILTER_REQUIRE_ARRAY
);
echo '*';
So, there is a naming inconsistency going on, as after the form is submitted, one has to forget about the original name of the submitted array by dropping its braces. Maybe when the PECL/Filter extension is reviewed again, the great ones might consider making the syntax a little more forgiving.
