Computer Consultant

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!