why is . converted to _ in $_POST

[jcg]

I have a form that contains some file names (eg this.jpg). When the form
posts, and i ready $_POST, I get back this_jpg.

What is happening? how can I turn this off?

--
jcg
ColumbusWebMakers.com

[Andy Hassall]

On Thu, 27 May 2004 20:10:51 GMT, jcg <hpwebby@ameritech.net> wrote:

>I have a form that contains some file names (eg this.jpg). When the form
>posts, and i ready $_POST, I get back this_jpg.

As the key presumably, and NOT the value?

>What is happening? how can I turn this off?

PHP used to set global variables based on the names of form elements
submitted. Variable names cannot contain '.', so '.' got transformed to '_' in
the variable name.

Looks like this is still being done in $_POST, despite it being unnecessary
(and arguably wrong). Don't believe you can turn it off without editing PHP.

From PHP 4.3.6, see main/php_variables.c:102

/* ensure that we don't have spaces or dots in the variable name (not
binary safe) */
for (p=var; *p; p++) {
switch(*p) {
case ' ':
case '.':
*p='_';
break;
}
}

--
Andy Hassall <andy@andyh.co.uk> / Space: disk usage analysis tool
[url]http://www.andyh.co.uk[/url] / [url]http://www.andyhsoftware.co.uk/space[/url]

[Joel Goldstick]

Thanks Andy. I decided the quick fix was to do a string replace of _jpg to
..jpg

I didn't realize . is illegal in a variable name. It kinda makes sense
though since that would confict with css.

newsgroups are great!

Joel Goldstick