Naming Checkboxes in Forms

What is the best practice for naming multiple checkboxes in an html form?

[rwilson]

What is the best way to name multiple groups of checkboxes in an html form?

I have a list of companies that I want the user to click to say which ones they are a vendor for. I've put the code below for how I am currently doing this, I'm just curious if there is a better cleaner way to do it. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

<input type="checkbox" name="CURRENT-vendor-companyA" id="companyA" value="yes" />
 <label for="companyA">Company A</label>

<input type="checkbox" name="CURRENT-vendor-companyB" id="companyB" value="yes" />
 <label for="companyB">Company B</label>

The email response looks like:
CURRENT-vendor-companyA: yes
CURRENT-vendor-companyB: yes

[Fotiman]

I would probably do it more like this:

<input type="checkbox" name="CURRENT-vendor" id="companyA" value="companyA" />
<label for="companyA">Company A</label>

<input type="checkbox" name="CURRENT-vendor" id="companyB" value="companyB" />
<label for="companyB">Company B</label>

You are asking a single question:
"Who are you a current vendor for?"
The answer may contain multiple values. I think this is probably easier to maintain than asking multiple questions:
"Are you a current vendor for CompanyA?"
"Are you a current vendor for CompanyB?"

[rwilson]

I've tried that but when I submit it I only see the question once and it fills in the last given answer

CURRENT-vendor: companyB

this shows up if both are selected. Is it because of the name attribute being the same? I'm using a basic php mail function

[Fotiman]

You need to give the input a name ending in []. As in:


<input type="checkbox" name="CURRENT-vendor[]" id="companyA" value="companyA" />
<label for="companyA">Company A</label>

<input type="checkbox" name="CURRENT-vendor[]" id="companyB" value="companyB" />
<label for="companyB">Company B</label>

Then you will be able to treat the result as an array in PHP. Like so:

<?php
print_r($_POST['CURRENT-vendor']);
?>

[rwilson]

Cool, thank you!