This document provides examples of accessing data submitted via a POST request in PHP. It shows how to echo username values from $_POST, $_REQUEST, and $HTTP_POST_VARS superglobals. It also demonstrates accessing nested array values submitted in a form by echoing the entire $_POST contents.

1. Accessing data from a simple POST
<?php
// Available since PHP 4.1.0
echo $_POST['username'];
echo $_REQUEST['username'];
import_request_variables('p', 'p_');
echo $p_username;
// As of PHP 5.0.0, these long predefined variables can be
// disabled with the register_long_arrays directive.
echo $HTTP_POST_VARS['username'];
// Available if the PHP directive register_globals = on. As of
// PHP 4.2.0 the default value of register_globals = off.
// Using/relying on this method is not preferred.
echo $username;
?>
Example2
<?php
if ($_POST) {
echo '<pre>';
echo htmlspecialchars(print_r($_POST, true));
echo '</pre>';
}
?>
<form action="" method="post">
Name: <input type="text" name="personal[name]" /><br />
Email: <input type="text" name="personal[email]" /><br />
Beer: <br />
<select multiple name="beer[]">
<option value="warthog">Warthog</option>
<option value="guinness">Guinness</option>
<option value="stuttgarter">Stuttgarter Schwabenbräu</option>
</select><br />
<input type="submit" value="submit me!" />
</form>