how to use multiple if(isset($_POST)) inside php variable

Question

On a page with multiple checkboxes to select products, I would like to send an email with the selected checkboxes.

The following code successfully outputs what I like after clicking the submit button, but on the webpage. I just cannot figure out how to include the results in the email instead.

Here's the html form:

<form action="" method="post">
    <label for="product1"><input type="checkbox" class="equipment[]" id="product1" name="product1" value="100">Add to inquiry</label>
    <label for="product2"><input type="checkbox" class="equipment[]" id="product2" name="product2" value="50">Add to inquiry</label>
    <label for="product3"><input type="checkbox" class="equipment[]" id="product3" name="product3" value="80">Add to inquiry</label>
    <input type="submit" name="submit" class="formsubmitbtn" value="Send inquiry">
</form>

This is the PHP code that successfully prints the results on the page:

<?php
    if(isset($_POST['product1'])){
    echo "checked Product Name 1"."<br>";
    }
    if(isset($_POST['product2'])){
        echo "checked Product Name 2"."<br>";
    }
    if(isset($_POST['product3'])){
        echo "checked Product Name 3";
    }
?>

The result (which is perfect for me) is:
checked Product Name 1
checked Product Name 2
checked Product Name 3

Now I'd like to put the result inside the email message instead. Here's the PHP for the email:

<?php 
if(isset($_POST['submit'])){
    $to = "myemailaddress";
    $from = $_POST['email']; // this is the sender's Email address

    $gearselection = ???;

    $subject = "Inquiry";
    $message = $from . "\n\n" . $gearselection;

    $headers = "From:" . $from;
    mail($to,$subject,$message,$headers);
    echo "Your inquiry has been sent.";
    }
?>

And in $gearselection I would like to output the results from the code above.

Can anyone help?

Answer 1

First off, it should be the name attribute that gets the square bracket, not the class and this name attribute should be defined on the input checkbox not the label.

<form action="" method="post">
  <input type="checkbox" name="product[]" id="product1" value="Product 1">
  <label for="product1">Product 1</label>

  <input type="checkbox" name="product[]" id="product2" value="Product 2">
  <label for="product2">Product 2</label>

  <input type="checkbox" name="product[]" id="product3" value="Product 3">
  <label for="product3">Product 3</label>

  <input type="submit" name="submit" class="formsubmitbtn" value="Send inquiry">
</form>

And then on the PHP side, you'll get an array of values depending on what's checked off for $_POST['product'] - you can just loop through them to get all of the items that were selected.

if(!empty($_POST['product'])) {
  foreach($_POST['product'] as $p) {
    echo $p;
  }
}

In your email, you could do something like:

if(!empty($_POST['product'])) {
  $gearselection = implode(', ', $_POST['product']);
}