How Would I Apply htmlentities() To Every Array Item

vujsa · 01-07-2008, 08:21 PM

Well, I don't know why I can't figure this out. It should have taken a few minutes for me to do but I had a lot of trouble with my broadband connection last night while I was working on it and I think that my frustration has gotten the better of me.

By the way, the likelihood of me figuring this out after I explain it here is rather high. lol

Simply put, I want to apply the function htmlentities to every item in an array even if I don't know how many items in the array or more importantly, the names of the array keys. However, the task must maintain the array key names when finished since the keys are used later to process the data.

Basically, I'm working on a generic script that would allow me to use the same script over and over for many different HTML forms. Since this script just acts as an in between script that cleans the data before it is passed to the next step, I need it to maintain all of the array information except for modifying the values as needed.

Okay, so why not just clean each item as it is processed later?
Well, the sooner I clean the data, the smaller the chance of a problem. The next step of the process is where my biggest concern is as it provides the largest security concern.

In addition to the htmlentities function, I'll be running a few more data cleaning functions on the input to ensure the safety of the system.

Assume the following array type to be used:

Code:

$_POST['f_name'] = "John";
$_POST['l_name'] = "Doe";
$_POST['username'] = "jdoe";
$_POST['email'] = "jdoe@nowhere.bfe";

Thanks for the help.
vujsa

Village Idiot · 01-07-2008, 08:27 PM

Foreach is good for looping though arrays, PHP: foreach - Manual

For your specific problem, to go though all POST data would be

PHP Code:


			
foreach($_POST as $post)
{
  $post =  htmlentities($post );
}

TlcAndres · 01-07-2008, 08:38 PM

PHP Code:


			
$_POST = array_map('htmlentities',$_POST);

array_map goes into every array element and preforms the function be it user made or from the system.

vujsa · 01-07-2008, 11:59 PM

Fantastic! That was exactly what I needed. I wish there was a way to search the PHP site by what you want to do instead of reading through page after page of non-related information.

I tried to use foreach prior to posting without any luck. This works and is much quicker than any of the loops.

Thanks,
vujsa

RobertK · 01-08-2008, 12:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vujsa

Fantastic! That was exactly what I needed. I wish there was a way to search the PHP site by what you want to do instead of reading through page after page of non-related information.

There is a way; if you go to the online manual, the HTML copy, and enter a function into the search box you can find it. Otherwise you're stuck browsing the manual sections to find array functions. Not a bad idea, but I know what you mean.

TlcAndres · 01-08-2008, 12:15 AM

Well just in case you'd like another method.

PHP Code:


			
foreach($_POST as $key => $val)
{
   $_POST[$key] = htmlentities($val);
}

drolex · 01-09-2009, 01:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TlcAndres

PHP Code:


			
$_POST = array_map('htmlentities',$_POST);

array_map goes into every array element and preforms the function be it user made or from the system.

Is there a way to use the optional parameters of htmlentities such as quotestyle and character-set parameters?

Wildhoney · 01-09-2009, 01:40 AM

I don't understand your question, drolex. It is possible to use them, but for what purpose? What do you want to achieve?

drolex · 01-09-2009, 02:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wildhoney

I don't understand your question, drolex. It is possible to use them, but for what purpose? What do you want to achieve?

The default quotestyle is ENT_COMPAT which only encodes double quotes. I think I need ENT_QUOTES which will also encode single quotes. I wanted to use character set "UTF-8" because everything else is UTF-8, and the default for htmlentities is ISO-8859-1 - Western European.

I have a database that stores descriptions for things. The user often enters descriptions containing quotes. All quotes and symbols need to be converted to html entities so the description can be show and not mess up the rest of the page. I want to store the descriptions pre-encoded so it doesn't have to use extra process cycles everytime the page is shown.

Enfernikus · 01-09-2009, 08:40 PM

Well the first and most obvious method to be would be to use create_function()

PHP Code:


			
<?php
$_POST = array_map( create_function('$string', 'return htmlentities($string,ENT_QUOTES);'), $_POST );

sketchMedia · 01-09-2009, 09:33 PM

Whats wrong with just using a foreach loop?

Scottymeuk · 01-10-2009, 01:28 PM

Or what you could do is:

PHP Code:


			
function get_post($string)

{

    return htmlentities($_POST[$string]);

}

and then, to use it you do

PHP Code:


			
get_post('john')

For example. It needs to be extended a lot but its the basics of it.