[SOLVED] Space in ['This Name'] stops it working

[theredking]

Sorry, couldn't think of a more appropriate subject.

 

I'm trying to teach myself to write a simple form which submits the data to itself for validation, and then emails the confirmed entries to an email address, before forwarding on to a URL... I can do these things separately by copy and pasting code, but as I really want to understand how it works, I'm trying to write the code and make a combination of all those things... Ok, far too much back story already, I just wanted you to know I wasn't just asking all the time, I'm actually trying to learn for myself...

 

So, I'm sure this is embarrassingly simple. I have my html form with text boxes mainly, "First Name" "Last Name" etc... This posts to my php file and the php file then has:

 $first_name = $_REQUEST['First Name'] ;

 

etc...

 

I then have echo to display all that... However it appears that it won't do this with ['First Name'], as it doesn't like the space between the words... I didn't think that the space mattered as long as it was the same name as the input box on the html form. If I change both to be ['First'] then it works. Why is this? I understand that you can't have spaces in a $variable, but I thought I could have spaces in ['this bit'] What is that called by the way? I'm still learning terminology too.

 

Anyway, thank you in anticipation. It's a steep learning curve, but I'm enjoying the climb!

 

 

[wildteen88]

How have you coded your form? Make sure you wrap quotes around the name attribute for the input tag, eg don't so this:

<input type=text name=first name>

MAke sure you do this:

<input type="text" name="first name">

 

if you don't use quotes around values for attributes your browser will ignore the spaces and use treat each individual word as an attribute and not a value.

[theredking]

Hi thanks, yes I have. My form looks like this

<form action="form_handler.php" method="post">
   First Name: <input name="First Name" type="text" /><br>
   Last Name: <input name="Last Name" type="text" /><br>
   <input type="submit" />
</form>

 

 

[pocobueno1388]

I'm not completely sure on where you can and can't use spaces, but I'm sure they aren't allowed in many places. Even if you can put a space there, it wouldn't be the common practice of doing things.

 

Usually you just use an underscore to represent a space (_). So instead of "First Name" do "first_name".

[theredking]

Ok, cool, if that's the answer I'm fine with that... I'm trying to graduate away from FormMail, which did allow the spaces in input names. I can live with underscoring stuff instead, but I just wanted to check I wasn't doing anything wrong.

 

Thanks!

[wildteen88]

Ooh, shoot! Hold on. the name attribute can't have spaces. You should use underscores (_) in replacement. Then use $_POST['first_name'] to get the value for that field.

 

Sorry about my last post, thinking about the wrong thing

[theredking]

Ok, cool thanks... So that means I will need to underscore in the html form names too, adding the underscore in the php file won't just translate that?  Easy enough to do. Thank you all. Like I said, I'm learning, so it's good to learn this basics first!!

[theredking]

Actually adding the underscore in the attribute does appear to translate the non-underscored name from the input box on the html form.

 

So,

<input type="text" name="First Name">

 

Can be called with:

$first_name = $_REQUEST['First_Name'] ;

 

Is this a safe practice? Or should I underscore both?

 

Thanks

 

 

 

 

 

[wildteen88]

personally I always use underscores in replacement of spaces, However the conversion does take place automatically by the browser when the form is submitted.

[theredking]

Ok. Seems to make more sense to be consistent and underscore in both places.

 

Thank you for your help!