Can PHP\'s `$_POST` Array Handle Multiple Form Fields with the Same Name?

Submitting Form Fields with Duplicate Name Attributes

Question:

When submitting a form containing multiple text input fields with the same name attribute, can all field values still be retrieved from the $_POST array in PHP?

Answer:

No, only the value of the last input element with the same name will be stored in the $_POST array.

Reason:

PHP populates the $_POST array by exploding the raw query string into individual name-value pairs. When it encounters multiple name-value pairs with the same name, it overwrites the previous value with the new one.

Alternatives:

To handle multiple inputs with the same name:

• Use a name attribute with an appended array syntax (e.g., name="foo[]").
• Access the raw query string directly using $rawQueryString = file_get_contents('php://input').

Parsing the Raw Query String:

If using the raw query string, you can parse it manually using a script similar to:

$post = array();
foreach (explode('&', file_get_contents('php://input')) as $keyValuePair) {
    list($key, $value) = explode('=', $keyValuePair);
    $post[$key][] = $value;
}

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