PHP Manual: Gets external variables and optionally filters them

Description

mixed filter_input_array ( int $type [, mixed $definition [, bool $add_empty = true ]] )

This function is useful for retrieving many values without repetitively calling filter_input.

Parameters

type

One of INPUT_GET, INPUT_POST, INPUT_COOKIE, INPUT_SERVER, or INPUT_ENV.

definition

An array defining the arguments. A valid key is a string containing a variable name and a valid value is either a filter type, or an array optionally specifying the filter, flags and options. If the value is an array, valid keys are filter which specifies the filter type, flags which specifies any flags that apply to the filter, and options which specifies any options that apply to the filter. See the example below for a better understanding.

This parameter can be also an integer holding a filter constant. Then all values in the input array are filtered by this filter.

add_empty

Add missing keys as NULL to the return value.

Return Values

An array containing the values of the requested variables on success, or FALSE on failure. An array value will be FALSE if the filter fails, or NULL if the variable is not set. Or if the flag FILTER_NULL_ON_FAILURE is used, it returns FALSE if the variable is not set and NULL if the filter fails.

Examples

Example #1 A filter_input_array example


<?php
error_reporting(E_ALL | E_STRICT);
/* data actually came from POST
$_POST = array(
    'product_id'    => 'libgd<script>',
    'component'     => '10',
    'versions'      => '2.0.33',
    'testscalar'    => array('2', '23', '10', '12'),
    'testarray'     => '2',
);
*/

$args = array(
    'product_id'   => FILTER_SANITIZE_ENCODED,
    'component'    => array('filter'    => FILTER_VALIDATE_INT,
                            'flags'     => FILTER_REQUIRE_ARRAY, 
                            'options'   => array('min_range' => 1, 'max_range' => 10)
                           ),
    'versions'     => FILTER_SANITIZE_ENCODED,
    'doesnotexist' => FILTER_VALIDATE_INT,
    'testscalar'   => array(
                            'filter' => FILTER_VALIDATE_INT,
                            'flags'  => FILTER_REQUIRE_SCALAR,
                           ),
    'testarray'    => array(
                            'filter' => FILTER_VALIDATE_INT,
                            'flags'  => FILTER_REQUIRE_ARRAY,
                           )

);

$myinputs = filter_input_array(INPUT_POST, $args);

var_dump($myinputs);
echo "\n";
?>

The above example will output:

array(6) {
  ["product_id"]=>
  array(1) {
    [0]=>
    string(17) "libgd%3Cscript%3E"
  }
  ["component"]=>
  array(1) {
    [0]=>
    int(10)
  }
  ["versions"]=>
  array(1) {
    [0]=>
    string(6) "2.0.33"
  }
  ["doesnotexist"]=>
  NULL
  ["testscalar"]=>
  bool(false)
  ["testarray"]=>
  array(1) {
    [0]=>
    int(2)
  }
}

Changelog

Version	Description
5.4.0	Added `add_empty` parameter.

Notes

Note:
There is no REQUEST_TIME key in INPUT_SERVER array because it is inserted into the $_SERVER later.

filter_input_array