PHP $_POST print variable name along with value

Question

I have a POST in PHP for which I won't always know the names of the variable fields I will be processing.

I have a function that will loop through the values (however I would also like to capture the variable name that goes with it.)

foreach ($_POST as $entry)
{
     print $entry . "<br>";
}

Once I figure out how to grab the variable names, I also need to figure out how I can make the function smart enough to detect and loop through arrays for a variable if they are present (i.e. if I have some checkbox values.)

Answer 1

You can have the foreach loop show the index along with the value:

foreach ($_POST as $key => $entry)
{
     print $key . ": " . $entry . "<br>";
}

As to the array checking, use the is_array() function:

foreach ($_POST as $key => $entry)
{
     if (is_array($entry)) {
        foreach($entry as $value) {
           print $key . ": " . $value . "<br>";
     } else {
        print $key . ": " . $entry . "<br>";
     }
}

Answer 2

If you just want to print the entire $_POST array to verify your data is being sent correctly, use print_r:

print_r($_POST);

To recursively print the contents of an array:

printArray($_POST);

function printArray($array){
     foreach ($array as $key => $value){
        echo "$key => $value";
        if(is_array($value){ //If $value is an array, print it as well!
            printArray($value);
        }  
    } 
}

Apply some padding to nested arrays:

printArray($_POST);

/*
 * $pad='' gives $pad a default value, meaning we don't have 
 * to pass printArray a value for it if we don't want to if we're
 * happy with the given default value (no padding)
 */
function printArray($array, $pad=''){
     foreach ($array as $key => $value){
        echo $pad . "$key => $value";
        if(is_array($value){
            printArray($value, $pad.' ');
        }  
    } 
}

is_array returns true if the given variable is an array.

Answer 3

If you want to detect array fields use a code like this:

foreach ($_POST as $key => $entry)
{
     if(is_array($entry)){
       print $key . ": " . implode(',',$entry) . "<br>";
     }
     else {
       print $key . ": " . $entry . "<br>";
     }
}