passing a array to php via ajax?

Question

I have this array

var car = new Array();
car['brand'] = "Ford";
car['color'] = "red";
car['type'] = 1;

now, i tried sending this but php only tells me car is a undefined index:

$.post('regCar.php', { "car[]": car }, function(data) {
 // some other lol here ...
});

Sending in "car[]": ["Ford", "red", 1] works fine :( How can i pass in an associative array to php?

• Felix Kling: Don't use arrays this way, use objects.. Make a print_r($_POST) and see what you get.
• xkeshav: you are sending data from php to ajax but your title is reverse of that
• Felix Kling: @diEcho: No, he is sending the data with jQuery to a PHP script.

Answer 1

As mentioned in my comment, you should not use arrays this way. Only use arrays for numerical indexes:

Associative Arrays are not allowed... or more precisely you are not allowed to use non number indexes for arrays. If you need a map/hash use Object instead of Array in these cases because the features that you want are actually features of Object and not of Array. Array just happens to extend Object (like any other object in JS and therefore you might as well have used Date, RegExp or String).

This is exactly the reason why the code does not work.

Have a look at this fiddle: The alert is empty meaning that jQuery is not serializing (and therefore sending) any data at all.

One might expect that it would at least send an empty value, like car[]= but apparently it does not.

If you use an object:

var car = {};

it works

Answer 2

Read json_encode and json_decode

• Felix Kling: now, i tried sending this but php only tells me car is a undefined index ... you got the question the wrong way.
• Jason94: what? i've ran a print_r on $_POST, it's empty! 'regCar.php', {'car': car}, function(data) is the syntax :(
• Felix Kling: @Jason94: Where do you define car? Could you please post more of your code? Is car accessible from where you call $.post? What does console.log(car) just before the Ajax call give you? However, the problem could really be that you are using an array instead of an object.
• Felix Kling: Because he wants to send data from jQuery to PHP and sending car does not work. The PHP functions will not help him here either.

Answer 3

(削除)

 $.post('regCar.php', {'car': car}, function(data) { // - I changed the key value name
 });

You don't need to add the brackets in the data parameter (削除ここまで)

However, I recommend you use JS objects.

var car = {};
car.brand = "Ford";
car.color = "red";
car.type = 1;

If you're getting an undefined error on the PHP side, you'll need to post your PHP code.

EDIT

As @Felix Kling points out, dropping array in favor of objects will work for you.

• JohnP: @Felix, looks like it. I read somewhere that JS doesn't actually have associated arrays and that it silently converts to objects. So objects seem to be the way to go