PHP displaying first letter of array in dropdown?

Question

My issue is that the dropdown is actually populating correctly but with only the first letter of that particular line.

I have the following in my file:

Monday

Tuesday

Wed

It is displaying as:

M

T

W

Any ideas?

My code:

<select id="playlist_wrongstyle" class="form-control"  style="visibility:visible; width:250px;">
<option selected="selected">Choose one</option>
<?php
  $returnedScheduleNamesArray = explode ("\n", file_get_contents('/srv/http/schedulenames'));

  array_pop($returnedScheduleNamesArray); //remove empty last line

  foreach($returnedScheduleNamesArray as $name) 
  {
?>
      <option value="<?=$name['name']?>"><?=$name['name']?></option>
<?php
  }
?>
</select>

Try just: <?= $name ?>

M. Eriksson
– M. Eriksson

2016-08-30 14:21:07 +00:00
Commented Aug 30, 2016 at 14:21 — M. Eriksson
– M. Eriksson, Commented Aug 30, 2016 at 14:21
$name is a string?

jeroen
– jeroen

2016-08-30 14:21:10 +00:00
Commented Aug 30, 2016 at 14:21 — jeroen
– jeroen, Commented Aug 30, 2016 at 14:21
@MagnusEriksson Perfect! Thanks a million :)

William
– William

2016-08-30 14:22:16 +00:00
Commented Aug 30, 2016 at 14:22 — William
– William, Commented Aug 30, 2016 at 14:22

Stephen · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-30 18:02:32Z

5

$name is a string. You should just echo name: <?= $name >

The reason you are seeing a single letter:

String characters can be accessed using array bracket syntax:
```
$name = 'Monday';
$name[0] === 'M'; // true
```
PHP is coercing your string 'name' into an integer, and this evaluates to 0:
```
(int)'name' === 0; // true
```
So, $name['any string'] === $name[0]; // true

edited Aug 30, 2016 at 18:02

answered Aug 30, 2016 at 14:22

Stephen

19k10 gold badges62 silver badges98 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

Don't Panic · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-30 14:39:22Z

4

This is basically what's happening with $name['name']:

foreach (['Monday', 'Tuesday'] as $name) {
    echo $name['nonexistent'];
}

If you adjust your error reporting level, you'll see

Warning: Illegal string offset 'nonexistent'

When PHP sees you use ['something'] after a string, it thinks you're trying to access a specific character within it (which you can do, but only with numeric indexes). But, since PHP expects an integer there, when you reference an illegal string offset, it gets converted to an integer, so you'll probably get index zero, the first letter, unless your illegal string offset starts with something that will convert to nonzero. (e.g. $day['3illegal'] gets you "d" and "s".)

edited Aug 30, 2016 at 14:39

answered Aug 30, 2016 at 14:27

Don't Panic

41.9k11 gold badges70 silver badges87 bronze badges

4 Comments

Stephen Over a year ago

Actually, you get index 0 because (int)'some string' evaluates to 0

Don't Panic Over a year ago

It's not just because PHP loves us? ;)

Stephen Over a year ago

I guess it's a little bit of both. :)

Don't Panic Over a year ago

You're right though, I probably shouldn't joke about such things. I'll edit.

Duane Lortie · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-30 16:48:04Z

3

Ooops, you've found the PHP magic trick. PRESTO! Strings are arrays!

         $name ='Bob';// thats a string
         echo $name['0']; // prints B, like an array
         echo $name['1']; // prints o, like an array

Strings variables are actually arrays, but in your case, you don't want that.. so

<option value="<?=$name?>"><?=$name?></option>

edited Aug 30, 2016 at 16:48

answered Aug 30, 2016 at 14:24

Duane Lortie

1,2601 gold badge12 silver badges17 bronze badges

2 Comments

iainn Over a year ago

That'll print "o" - strings are zero-indexed just like arrays.

Duane Lortie Over a year ago

Well it was magic when I accidentally discovered it back in the year 2000sumthin , and I'll test but I thought they were zero index, eg; $name['0'] was the whole string, 1 was the first char.. anyways, still magic, just unimpressive magic :p

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

PHP displaying first letter of array in dropdown?

3 Answers 3

Comments

4 Comments

2 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

Comments

4 Comments

2 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related