Get form serialize value from the array list

Question

I have an array like this:

Array
(
    [action_name] => edit
    [formData] => color=red&size=full&symmetry=square&symmetry=circle&symmetry=oval
)

Here, form data is coming using the serialize method of JS and so it is displayed like above. I want to get each data from the formData key. How can I get that?

I tried:

$_POST['formData']['color']

But that is not working. I think the method to fetch this shall be different. How can I do that?

Answer 1

You can use parse_​str to "parse string as if it were the query string passed via a URL and sets variables in the current scope (or in the array if result is provided)."

<?php
$_POST = [
    'action_name' => 'edit',
    'formData' => 'color=red&size=full&symmetry=square',
];
parse_str($_POST['formData'], $parsed);
print_r($parsed);

will output

Array
(
    [color] => red
    [size] => full
    [symmetry] => square
)

Edit: Having multiple values for symmetry, your query should look like:

<?php
$_POST = [
    'action_name' => 'edit',
    'formData' => 'color=red&size=full&symmetry[]=square&symmetry[]=circle&symmetry[]=oval',
];
parse_str($_POST['formData'], $parsed);
print_r($parsed);

This would output:

Array
(
    [color] => red
    [size] => full
    [symmetry] => Array
        (
            [0] => square
            [1] => circle
            [2] => oval
        )
)