Makes sense; thanks. Posting a list on multi-selects would be a help, but there's still the other problem you mentioned (other input types). I've written code to try to take this into account by always converting the value.
Any thoughts on why sometimes the value comes across as an int, other times as a string? Michael On Friday, September 28, 2012 7:01:44 PM UTC-6, Massimo Di Pierro wrote: > > Good question. > > The issues is the following. When an HTML form is submitted with one > variable (a) the query_string contains ?a=value. If it is submitted with > two values, the query string contains ?a=value&a=other. > > When web2py (or any other framework) parses the query_string it may > find ?a=value or ?a=value&a=other but it does not know if the variable > comes from a normal input, a select, a multiple select, or checkboxes. > > Different frameworks take the same approach. Web2py parses ?a=value into > request.vars.a='value' and ?a=value&a=other into > request.vars.a=['value','other']. > > Other frameworks do what you suggest and always use a list: ?a=value into > request.vars.a=['value'] but the drawback is that they always do it even > for regular input fields (<input name="a"/>). If we were to do it we would > have lots more request.vars.a[0] everywhere. > > The web2py solution is a compromise, as many other design decisions are. > > Massimo > > > > > > > > > > On Friday, 28 September 2012 17:33:18 UTC-5, MichaelF wrote: >> >> I have a form with a multi-select. If I choose one value and submit, the >> value is set in request.vars.xxx as a single integer (e.g., 2). If I choose >> more than one value and submit I get a list of string values (e.g., ['1', >> '5']). If I select no values I get None. >> >> Expected? Why the inconsistency? Or am I doing something wrong? Why not >> ['2'], ['1', '5'], and []? That's consistent, orthogonal, etc. >> >> Thanks. >> > --
