Calculations Within Repeater Rows

Repeater fields in the global $_POST variable are multidimensional arrays that are 4-levels deep. You are not accessing their values correctly.

The dimensions are item_meta, field_id, row_id, and field_id within the row.

To provide a better understanding, I've attached a screen shot of the content of a repeater field multidimensional array as displayed in the Kint debugger for a sample form in my dev environment. Let me walk you through it.

In this example, I am using a repeater field with a single text field. I've added three rows of content.

87 is the field id for the repeater field on the primary form. This would be accessed as $_POST['item_meta']['87'].

form => '6' is the id of the repeater field child form. Every repeater field is a child form of the primary form. This would be accessed as $_POST['item_meta']['87']['form'].

the row_ids array tells us how many repeater rows are being saved. You can use the length of this array to set up a loop if you so choose. Your loop is using $_POST['item_meta'][ $posted_field->id ]. While this will provide you with the correct field_id on the parent form ($_POST['item_meta']['87']) it will not go deep enough to retrieve the repeater row content.

The next 3 arrays are the contents of each repeater field row. They would be accessed as $_POST['item_meta']['87']['0']['89']
$_POST['item_meta']['87']['1']['89']
$_POST['item_meta']['87']['2']['89']

The values of each in order are:
$_POST['item_meta']['87']['0']['89'] = "Test string 1"
$_POST['item_meta']['87']['1']['89'] = "Test string 2"
$_POST['item_meta']['87']['2']['89'] = "repeating field 3"

Hope this helps...

Thanks Victor

That's a great explanation, i'll attempt to re write it or maybe start with a simpler calculation.

Thanks Again I really appreciate this. I'll update this thread with my outcome it might be helpful for others.

Victor quick question:

In $_POST['item_meta']['87']['0']['89'] = "Test string 1"

If ['0'] is the row number can I set this to [' '] in order to access all rows?

example:

change all fields in all repeater rows to "Hello":

In $_POST['item_meta']['87'][' ']['89'] = "Hello"

No, you cannot have an empty array index. It's an out of bounds error.

You have to loop through the row_ids array and use the row id as a variable. Since it's a simple array and not key => value, here's an example of the code you could use.

foreach ( $_POST['item_meta']['row_ids'] as $val ) {
$_POST['item_meta']['87'][$val]['89']
}

Victor,

You're always so helpful. I managed to get this working! Understanding this structure will help me manipulate the repeater fields.

Below is the code I've used to calculate time in each repeater row with 3 fields:

Single Time drop down (Start Time)  - 1510
Single Time drop down (End Time) - 1511
Text Field (Total Time) - 1509

FYI the repeater section id - 1507

<?php

add_filter('frm_validate_field_entry', 'modify_repeating_section_field', 10, 3);
function modify_repeating_section_field($errors, $posted_field, $posted_value){
if ( $posted_field->id == 1507 ) {                                                           //1507 is the repeater id
foreach ( $_POST['item_meta']['1507']['row_ids'] as $val ) {          //Extract row ids to loop through

$start = strtotime($_POST['item_meta']['1507'][$val]['1510']);     //Start time field field
$end = strtotime($_POST['item_meta']['1507'][$val]['1511']);       //End time field
$totaltime = ($end - $start);
$hours = intval($totaltime / 3600);
$seconds_remain = ($totaltime - ($hours * 3600));
$minutes = intval($seconds_remain / 60);
$leading_zero_for_minutes = $minutes < 10 ? '0' : '';
$totaltime = $hours . ':' . $leading_zero_for_minutes . $minutes;
$value = $_POST['item_meta']['1507'][$val]['1509'] = $totaltime;      //Total time field
}
}
return $errors;
}

?>