Perfect sense thanks Pat. My confusion came from the php snippet being used (I now see wrongly) in the first book I tried to learn from. This puts the finishing touch to David's explanation. Also helps me to be clearer in general about the coding.
There was another big error in that book which Bj gave the answer to, and that became part of the errata awaiting correction for the next edition. Now, at last, I think it has clicked why I struggled so much in learning. And now I am also working from Julie C Meloni's SAMS book. But there are still things I can'tr sort out till I ask the list. Thanks for the help. Joseph Harris www.smilepoetryweekly.com From: "Pat Richard" Actually, two totally separate items... The first sets the form field name. You have an input field, and it is called "whatever". The second is setting the VALUE of the form field. From the looks of, it's getting the data submitted from another form. $_POST['first_name'] is taking the value of "first_name", submitted via a form that was posted. An example of using these together would be <form method="post" action="results.php"> <input type="text" name="first_name" /> <input type="submit" /> </form> on a form. The use enters their first name, and whacks the submit button. On the next page (results.php), you could display something like Hello <?=$_POST['first_name'] ?>, how are you today? That would echo the value of the form field "first_name" that was submitted. Keep in mind that the variable would only contain data if the form was submitted via POST (and not GET), and you have a form field named "first_name". Hope this makes sense. -----Original Message----- From: Joseph Harris [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2005 11:10 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [wdvltalk] values in forms with php I am just settling in my mind conflicting ways of dealing with forms. In one the user box is identified by name="whatever" and that is dealt with by the action file. The other is something like this: value="<?=$_POST['first_name'];?>" also dealt with by the action file. Am I right in thinking the second would be used where there is a range of options to select from. I have an example which, as there is no list, produces a notice of an unidentified variable and also shows the php code in the textbox. Is there a reason for using the second version where the form is filled with new information? TIA Joseph Harris ____ * The WDVL Discussion List from WDVL.COM * ____ To Join wdvltalk, Send An Email To: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] or use the web interface http://e-newsletters.internet.com/discussionlists.html/ Send Your Posts To: [email protected] To change subscription settings, add a password or view the web interface: http://intm-dl.sparklist.com/read/?forum=wdvltalk ________________ http://www.wdvl.com _______________________ You are currently subscribed to wdvltalk as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe via postal mail, please contact us at: Jupitermedia Corp. Attn: Discussion List Management 475 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10016 Please include the email address which you have been contacted with. ____ . The WDVL Discussion List from WDVL.COM . ____ To Join wdvltalk, Send An Email To: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] or use the web interface http://e-newsletters.internet.com/discussionlists.html/ Send Your Posts To: [email protected] To change subscription settings, add a password or view the web interface: http://intm-dl.sparklist.com/read/?forum=wdvltalk ________________ http://www.wdvl.com _______________________ You are currently subscribed to wdvltalk as: unknown lmsubst tag argument: '' To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe via postal mail, please contact us at: Jupitermedia Corp. Attn: Discussion List Management 475 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10016 Please include the email address which you have been contacted with. ____ The WDVL Discussion List from WDVL.COM ____ To Join wdvltalk, Send An Email To: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] or use the web interface http://e-newsletters.internet.com/discussionlists.html/ Send Your Posts To: [email protected] To change subscription settings, add a password or view the web interface: http://intm-dl.sparklist.com/read/?forum=wdvltalk ________________ http://www.wdvl.com _______________________ You are currently subscribed to wdvltalk as: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe via postal mail, please contact us at: Jupitermedia Corp. Attn: Discussion List Management 475 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10016 Please include the email address which you have been contacted with.
