March 23, 2012
Search array key from form post and get sub array
Question by Vince Lowe
I have an array which is storing server addresses like so
$servers = array(
'UK'=>array(
'voi' => '54.53.23.32',
'gps' => '55.65.34.34',
'sos' => '54.54.34.23'
),
'USA'=>array(
'voi' => '12.23.45.67',
'gps' => '65.443.23.45',
'sos' => '12.23.456.4'
)
);
I have a form which is listing the server locations
<select name="server" id="server">
<?php foreach($servers as $key => $arr){
echo "<option>" .$key. "</option>"; }
?>
</select>
Once the form is submitted i need to set a session variable with the correct countrys IP’s
$_SESSION['voi']=$submitted_countrys_voi_ip;
$_SESSION['gps']=$submitted_countrys_gps_ip;
etc..
How can i choose the correct key based on the form post and get the values from the sub array into a session variable?
Answer by Starx
First of all, you select does not have a value. So fixed that first
<select name="server" id="server">
<?php foreach($servers as $key => $arr){
echo "<option value='$key'>" .$key. "</option>"; }
?>
</select>
Then, after the form is submitted. Assuming that form is submitted using POST method
$server = ..; //Being your array of ips
$sub_server = $_POST['server']; //get the submitted server
$_SESSION['voi'] = $server[$sub_server]['voi'];
$_SESSION['gps'] = $server[$sub_server]['gps'];
// and so on
Improvement
In case you have lots of IP’s for a nation, then you might want to create an array of the types first.
$server = ..;
$types = array('voi','gps', 'sos'); //TYPES in a single array
$sub_server = $_POST['server'];
foreach($types as $type) {
$_SESSION[$type] = $server[$sub_server][$type];
}
This is automatically assign every types at once.
