Very Basic: arrays and forms

[Endraca]

Firstly:

Please excuse me if my post is a bit awkward, newer posted anything of this kind before.

 

This is part of a university assignment I have to do,not very complicated stuff, basically we have created 3 arrays , one for $drinks,$desserts, and $meals, for example:

 

$drinks= array (
'Spring Water'=>'7',
'Coke'=>'6',
'Coffee'=>'4',
'Tea'=>'5',
'Hot Chocolate'=>'8'
);

 

with this array we have created 3 drop down lists like this:

 

<?php  
print "<tr><td>Select your drink</td><td><select name='drink'>";
foreach($drinks as $drink=>$price2)
{
print "<option value='$drink'>$drink - R $price2</option>";
}
?>
print "</select>

 

This information is submitted to my next page where I have to add the prices of the 3 items...and there is where my problem lies

I seem to be able to use the "$drink" bit of the array and not the "$price2" bit of it. This is probably caused by my lack of understanding of arrays, but basically I want to know why, for example

 

print "{$_POST['drink']} {$_POST['price2']} </br>";

 

doesn't print the price with the drink I chose

and I can't seem to use $price2 in any calculations

So my main question after all of this is how can I get "$price2" in my next php page so I can do calculations with it?

[paul2463]

if its part of a university assignment shouldnt you be working out for yourself instead of asking for help on here??

 

to help you on your way - a select box will only pass one piece of information, which is what you have told it is the "option value", in your case the value of $drink, not the value of $price2

[Endraca]

Our lecturer said if we get stuck we are allowed to ask here (he named this forum), though if I am still stuck by tomorrow I will go and ask him

 

So what you are saying is that if I need both values (which I do) I can't use a select box to get both values?

Personally I'd rather have used check boxes for this exercise, but we are told to use a select box though, so there has to be another way for me to get the other value ($price2).

 

There was a point where I was able to print for example "Tea 5" but I still can't do calculations with "$price2". Guess I'll just ask the lecturer tomorrow, luckily it only needs to be in by Friday.

 

[BlueSkyIS]

You can use a select that allows multiple selections.

 

<SELECT NAME='selection1[]' MULTIPLE>
<OPTION VALUE='option1'>Option 1</OPTION>
<OPTION VALUE='option2'>Option 2</OPTION>
<OPTION VALUE='option3'>Option 3</OPTION>
</SELECT>

[Barand]

You can pass the select values as you are now but store the arrays as session variables so they available to the next page too.

[paul2463]

if you want to pass both pieces of information across using the select box you could use

<?php
print "<tr><td>Select your drink</td><td><select name='drink'>";
foreach($drinks as $drink=>$price2)
{
print "<option value='$price2/$drink'>$drink - R $price2</option>"; //value now equals both pieces of info separated by a /
print "</select>";
?>

 

which when passed across requires the use of explode to get both pices away from each other such as

<?php
$food = $_POST['drink'];
$pieces = 	explode('/',$food); //re-separate the data
echo "$pieces[0] - $pieces[1]"; //print them out or use them where you need them
?>

 

hope that helps a bit more