PHP POST

From http://www.w3schools.com (Copyright Refsnes Data)

# PHP $_POST

The $_POST variable is used to collect values from a form with method="post".

## The $_POST Variable

The $_POST variable is an array of variable names and values sent by the HTTP POST method.

The $_POST variable is used to collect values from a form with method="post". Information sent from a form with the POST method is invisible to others and has no limits on the amount of information to send.

### Example

    <form action="welcome.php" method="post">
    Enter your name: <input type="text" name="name" />
    Enter your age: <input type="text" name="age" />
    <input type="submit" />
    </form>

When the user clicks the "Submit" button, the URL will not contain any form data, and will look something like this:

    http://www.w3schools.com/welcome.php

The "welcome.php" file can now use the $_POST variable to catch the form data (notice that the names of the form fields will automatically be the ID keys in the $_POST array):

    Welcome <?php echo $_POST["name"]; ?>.<br />
    You are <?php echo $_POST["age"]; ?> years old!

## Why use $_POST?

- Variables sent with HTTP POST are not shown in the URL
- Variables have no length limit

However, because the variables are not displayed in the URL, it is not possible to bookmark the page.

## The $_REQUEST Variable

The PHP $_REQUEST variable contains the contents of both $_GET, $_POST, and $_COOKIE.

The PHP $_REQUEST variable can be used to get the result from form data sent with both the GET and POST methods.

### Example

    Welcome <?php echo $_REQUEST["name"]; ?>.<br />
    You are <?php echo $_REQUEST["age"]; ?> years old!

From http://www.w3schools.com (Copyright Refsnes Data)