Posting array from form

I have a form on my page with a bunch of inputs and some hidden fields, I've been asked to pass this data through a "post array" only im unsure on how to do this,

Heres a snippet of what im doing at the moment

<form enctype="multipart/form-data" action="process.php" method="POST"> 
...
more inputs
...

<!-- Hidden data -->
<input type="hidden" name="TimeToRenderHoursInput" value="<?php echo $RenderHours; ?>" />
<input type="hidden" name="TimeToRenderDaysInput" value="<?php echo $RenderDays; ?>" />
<input type="hidden" name="TimeToRenderYearsInput" value="<?php echo $RenderYears; ?>" />
<input type="hidden" name="ContentMinutesInput" value="<?php echo $ContentMinutes; ?>" />
<input type="hidden" name="ContentMinutesSelector" value="<?php echo $ContentMinutesSelector; ?>" />
<input type="hidden" name="PriorityInput" value="<?php echo $Priority; ?>" />
<input type="hidden" name="AvgFrameRenderTimeInput" value="<?php echo $AverageFrameRenderTime; ?>" />
<input type="hidden" name="AvgFrameRenderTimeSelector" value="<?php echo $AverageFrameRenderSelector; ?>" />
<input type="hidden" name="CoresInTestInput" value="<?php echo $CoresInTest; ?>" />
<input type="hidden" name="EstPriceInput" value="<?php echo $EstPrice; ?>" />
<!-- End hidden -->

<input type="image" src="http://www.venndigital.co.uk/testsite/renderbutton/_includes/images/button/submit.jpg" alt="Submit" value="Submit" style="border:0!important;" />

In my process.php im then calling the data as such...

$first_name = $_POST['first_name']; 
$company_name = $_POST['company_name']; 
$email_from = $_POST['email']; 
$address = $_POST['address']; 
$postcode = $_POST['postcode']; 
$RenderHours = $_POST['TimeToRenderHoursInput'];
$RenderDays = $_POST['TimeToRenderDaysInput'];
$RenderYears = $_POST['TimeToRenderYearsInput'];
$ContentMinutes = $_POST['ContentMinutesInput'];
$ContentMinutesSelector = $_POST['ContentMinutesSelector'];
$Priority = $_POST['PriorityInput'];
$AverageFrameRenderTime = $_POST['AvgFrameRenderTimeInput'];
$AverageFrameRenderSelector = $_POST['AvgFrameRenderTimeSelector'];
$CoresInTest = $_POST['CoresInTestInput'];
$EstPrice = $_POST['EstPriceInput'];

Is there a way to post it as an array? Is my method bad practice in anyway?

Solution 1:

Give each input a name in array format:

<input type="hidden" name="data[EstPriceInput]" value="" />

Then the in PHP $_POST['data']; will be an array:

  print_r($_POST);         // print out the whole post
  print_r($_POST['data']); // print out only the data array

Solution 2:

When you post that data, it is stored as an array in $_POST.

You could optionally do something like:

<input name="arrayname[item1]">
<input name="arrayname[item2]">
<input name="arrayname[item3]">

Then:

$item1 = $_POST['arrayname']['item1'];
$item2 = $_POST['arrayname']['item2'];
$item3 = $_POST['arrayname']['item3'];

But I fail to see the point.

Solution 3:

You're already doing that, as a matter of fact. When the form is submitted, the data is passed through a post array ($_POST). Your process.php is receiving that array and redistributing its values as individual variables.