PHP filter_input_array() Function

Example

Use the filter_input_array() function to filter three POST variables. The received POST variables is name, age and e-mail:

<?php
$filters = array (
  "name" => array ("filter"=>FILTER_CALLBACK,
                             "flags"=>FILTER_FORCE_ARRAY,
                             "options"=>"ucwords"
                            ),
  "age"   => array ( "filter"=>FILTER_VALIDATE_INT,
                              "options"=>array("min_range"=>1,"max_range"=>120)
                            ),
  "email" => FILTER_VALIDATE_EMAIL
  );
print_r(filter_input_array(INPUT_POST, $filters));
?>

The output of the code above will be:

Array
  (
  [name] => Peter
  [age] => 41
  [email] => peter@example.com
  )

Definition and Usage

The filter_input_array() function gets external variables (e.g. from form input) and optionally filters them.

This function is useful for retrieving/filtering many values instead of calling filter_input() many times.

Syntax

filter_input_array(type, definition, add_empty)

Parameter Values

Parameter	Description
type	Required. The input type to check for. Can be one of the following: INPUT_GET INPUT_POST INPUT_COOKIE INPUT_SERVER INPUT_ENV
definition	Optional. Specifies an array of filter arguments. A valid array key is a variable name, and a valid value is a filter name or ID, or an array specifying the filter, flags and options. This parameter can also be a single filter name/ID; then all values in the input array are filtered by the specified filter
add_empty	Optional. A Boolean value. TRUE adds missing keys as NULL to the return value. Default value is TRUE

Technical Details

Return Value:	An array with the values of the variables on success, FALSE on failure
PHP Version:	5.2+
PHP Changelog:	PHP 5.4 - The add_empty parameter was added

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