Can I put associative arrays in form inputs to be processed in PHP?

I know I can do things like `<input name="foo[]">`, but is it possible to do things like `<input name="foo[bar]">` and have it show up in PHP as `$_POST['foo']['bar']`?

*The reason I ask is because I'm making a huge table of form elements (including `<select>` with multiple selections), and I want to have my data organized cleanly for the script that I'm POSTing to. I want the input elements in each column to have the same base name, but a different row identifier as an array key. Does that make sense?*

**EDIT:** I tried exactly this already, but apparently Drupal is interfering with what I'm trying to do. I thought I was just getting my syntax wrong. Firebug tells me that my input names are constructed exactly like this, but my data comes back as `[foo[bar]] => data` rather than `[foo] => array([bar] => data)`.

**EDIT 2:** It seems my real problem was my assumption that `$form_state['values']` in Drupal would have the same array hierarchy as `$_POST`. I should never have assumed that Drupal would be that reasonable and intuitive. I apologize for wasting your time. You may go about your business.

Yes you can. you can even do `name="foor[bar][]"` and on for even more padding.

You can do this in Drupal too, quite easily. The important thing you have to remember about is setting form '#tree' parameter to TRUE. To give you a quick example:


function MYMODULE_form() {
$form = array('#tree' => TRUE);
$form['group_1']['field_1'] = array(
'#type' => 'textfield',
'#title' => 'Field 1',
);
$form['group_1']['field_2'] = array(
'#type' => 'textfield',
'#title' => 'Field 2',
);
$form['group_2']['field_3'] = array(
'#type' => 'textfield',
'#title' => 'Field 3',
);
$form['submit'] = array(
'#type' => 'submit',
'#value' => 'Submit',
);
return $form;
}

Now, if you print_r() $form_state['values'] in MYMODULE_form_submit($form, &$form_state), you will see something like this:

Array
(
[group_1] => Array
(
[field_1] => abcd
[field_2] => efgh
)

[group_2] => Array
(
[field_3] => ijkl
)

[op] => Submit
[submit] => Submit
[form_build_id] => form-7a870f2ffdd231d9f76f033f4863648d
[form_id] => test_form
)

Let say we want to print student scores using the form below:

<form action="" method="POST">
<input name="student['john']">
<input name="student['kofi']">
<input name="student['kwame']">
<input type="submit" name="submit">
</form>

and PHP code to print their scores:

if(isset($_POST['submit']))
{
echo $_POST['student']['john'] . '<br />';
echo $_POST['student']['kofi'] . '<br />';
echo $_POST['student']['kwame'] . '<br />';
}

This will print the values you input into the field.

Too late to answer but its important to highlight an aspect of @Ernest Boabramah answer.

If you send your input data as array having keys inside quotes as follows

<input name="student['john']">
<input name="student['kofi']">

Then you must escape those quotes around keys while accessing the value in php

echo $_POST['student']['\'john\''];
echo $_POST['student']['\'kofi\'']

I would suggest you to remove those quotes around the keys

<input name="student[john]">
<input name="student[kofi]">

so you can access them without escaping anything

echo $_POST['student']['john'];
echo $_POST['student']['kofi'];