PHP $_POST, $_GET, and $_REQUEST keys

Question

Is there ever a case (like some quirky browser) where a form input field's id becomes the key in $_POST, $_GET or $_REQUEST, instead of the field's name?

We were having trouble with a field where the ID didn't match the name. Changing the ID to match appeared to fix the problem. The issue was purely PHP parsing; no JS involved.

Coincidence?

Google returns no such thing...

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A function (sorry, old php4 code) generates the field. Here's part of it

echo "<select name=\"$varName";
echo "_dd\" id=\"$varName";
echo "e_dd\">\n"; 

Removing the 'e' from that last line apparently fixed it. I didn't do it myself; someone here told me it fixed the issue. It didn't break every date field, it seemed to be an intermittent problem. That's why I immediately thought of some strange browser quirk.

I've never seen such a thing before, so I was hoping someone here has.

Thanks!

Answer 1

No, it’s the name attribute that names the control field:

A control's "control name" is given by its name attribute. The scope of the name attribute for a control within a FORM element is the FORM element.

Answer 2

Clean code is nice code :). Can you verify this doesn't work?

echo "<select name='".$varName."_dd' id='".$varName."e_dd'>\n"; 

It would be good to see the generated html too.

Answer 3

In XHTML 1.1 strict, id has replaced name and name is deprecated.

If your XHTML is sent using the HTTP Content-Type application/xhtml+xml (which according to standards, it must), then it is probable that a browser that goes by the standard to a Tee would use ids to populate $_POST in PHP, not name.

http://www.codingforums.com/archive/index.php/t-29229.html

See the XHTML 1.1 spec: http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml-modularization/abstract_modules.html

Name attributes are only allowed in a, applet, frame, iframe and map elements. And any other element that just happens to have a name, must have an id of the same name.