Comma question with loops/form

Report · Apr 24, 2009

Hi all-

I have a problem with commas. I use a loop to create a set of <cfinputs> all with the name "theData". Thus when you enter some data in the input boxes and hit submit, the dump shows the contents of "theData" as the contents of each <cfinput> separated by a comma.

The real form can have a couple hundred of these inputs, which is why I used the one name (I pass the whole thing off to the database to dissect it).

Great, except that I don't know what to do if the user enters data with a comma in one of the <cfinputs>...in the dump now the fields are co-mingled with the data, and I can't tell what is 'data' and what is a field. That has to have come up enough that there's probably a built-in solution that I'm not grokking...is there a way to properly separate the individual fields so that I can tell what is truly data, regardless of what the user puts in the field?

Thanks,

Ron

Report · Apr 24, 2009

In your form, give your inputs different names. You can still use a loop.

When you process the forms, do something like this

do something.

Report · Apr 24, 2009

Hi Dan-

Thanks for the tip, it helped a lot.

In case anyone has a similar question, here's the code I came up with to test out Dan's idea. It's not exactly optimized, but I think it gets the point across:

<cfif isDefined("Form.saveStuff")>
    <cfdump var="#Form#" label="Form Variables">
    <cfset theValue=""/>
    <cfloop list = "#form.fieldnames#" index = "idx">
        <cfif left(idx, 7) is "theData">
            <cfset formData=#Evaluate('Form.#idx#')#>
            <cfset theValue=#theValue# & "||" & #formData#>
        </cfif>
    </cfloop>
    <cfoutput><br/>The result is #theValue#</cfoutput>
</cfif>
<html>
<body>
    <cfform>
        <cfloop index = "LoopCount" from = "1" to = "5">
            <cfinput size="4" style="background-Color:##66FF00" type="text" name="theData#loopcount#"/>
            <br/>
        </cfloop>
        <cfinput name="saveStuff" type="submit" value="Save It" />
    </cfform>
</body>
</html>

Report · Apr 24, 2009

On the topic of optimization, this

does the same as this

only faster