Howto serialize an array'd checkbox in jQuery

Question

It's pretty awkward that I couldn't find a thread with a similar problem... Well then, let's assume I have a standard HTML form with checkboxes (that will be parsed as an array in PHP), notice the brackets in the name attribute:

<form class="myForm" action="evaluate.php" method="get">
    <input type="text" name="name" value="" placeholder="Your name"/>
    <input type="checkbox" name="facts[]" value="1" id="fact-1"/><label for="fact-1">Fact 1</label>
    <input type="checkbox" name="facts[]" value="2" id="fact-2"/><label for="fact-2">Fact 2</label>
    ...
</form>

And now I want jQuery to serialize the content of the form with:

alert($('.myForm').serialize());

The expected result would be something like this:

name=MyName&facts[]=1&facts=[]=2&...

but unfortunately it doesn't, because the brackets "[]" are escaped:

name=MyName&facts%5B%5D=1&facts=%5B%5D=2&...

Has anyone a solution for this problem except writing an own serialization script?

OK, I found a thread talking about that here: stackoverflow.com/questions/304518/… but there is no accepted solution. "serialize().replace('%5B%5D', '[]')" is a little risky I think. — kernel
– kernel, Commented Oct 7, 2011 at 18:35
please take some time to read the faq. If there isn't an answer that suits you, you'll just have to add a bounty to it. I understand that you're new and don't have the rep to assign a bounty, but it's really not all that difficult to answer a few questions and get the 50 rep necessary to open a small bounty. — zzzzBov
– zzzzBov, Commented Oct 7, 2011 at 18:39

Vaibhav Gupta · Accepted Answer · 2011-10-07 18:41:00Z

3

or try:

alert(decodeURI('MyName&facts%5B%5D=1&facts=%5B%5D=2&'));

it will decode all escaped characters including []

answered Oct 7, 2011 at 18:41

Vaibhav Gupta

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1 Comment

lewsid Over a year ago

This is one of the handiest js functions.

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