Multiple Selection

' Save this file as multiple_selection.asp
<%
Dim intNumberSelected ' Count of items selected
Dim strSelectedTeams  ' String returned from QS (or Form)
Dim arrSelectedTeams  ' Variable to hold team array
Dim I         ' Looping variable
' Retrieve the count of items selected
intNumberSelected = Request.Form("teams").Count
if intNumberSelected = 0 Then
%> 
    Pick your favorite teams (hold down CTRL to select more than one):<BR> 

    <FORM ACTION="multiple_selection.asp" METHOD="post">
        <!--
        The MULTIPLE parameter allows users to select multiple items
        from the pulldown box. The size attribute specifies how many
        items tall to make the selection box.
        -->
        <SELECT NAME="teams" MULTIPLE SIZE="10">
            <OPTION>Anaheim Angels</OPTION>
            <OPTION>Atlanta Braves</OPTION>
            <OPTION>Arizona Diamondbacks</OPTION>
            <OPTION>Baltimore Orioles</OPTION>
            <OPTION>Boston Red Sox</OPTION>
            <OPTION>Chicago Cubs</OPTION>
            <OPTION>Chicago White Sox</OPTION>
            <OPTION>Cincinnati Reds</OPTION>
            <OPTION>Cleveland Indians</OPTION>
            <OPTION>Colorado Rockies</OPTION>
            <OPTION>Detroit Tigers</OPTION>
            <OPTION>Florida Marlins</OPTION>
            <OPTION>Houston Astros</OPTION>

            <OPTION>Kansas City Royals</OPTION>
            <OPTION>Los Angeles Dodgers</OPTION>
            <OPTION>Milwaukee Brewers</OPTION>
            <OPTION>Minnesota Twins</OPTION>
            <OPTION>Montreal Expos</OPTION>
            <OPTION>New York Mets</OPTION>
            <OPTION>New York Yankees</OPTION>
            <OPTION>Oakland Athletics</OPTION>
            <OPTION>Philadelphia Phillies</OPTION>
            <OPTION>Pittsburgh Pirates</OPTION>

            <OPTION>San Diego Padres</OPTION>

            <OPTION>San Francisco Giants</OPTION>
            <OPTION>Seattle Mariners</OPTION>
            <OPTION>St. Louis Cardinals</OPTION>
            <OPTION>Tampa Bay Devil Rays</OPTION>
            <OPTION>Texas Rangers</OPTION>
            <OPTION>Toronto Blue Jays</OPTION>
        </SELECT>
        <BR>
        <INPUT type="submit" value="Send Team Selection">
    </FORM>
    <%
Else
    ' Retrieve the comma delimited list of teams that is returned
    ' from the Form collection. This could also be gotten from
    ' the QueryString collection, but I used the post method
    ' instead of get in my form.
    strSelectedTeams = Request.Form("teams")
    ' Split our text variable into an array so we have easy
    ' programmatic access to the individual elements. Rememeber
    ' the array will start at 0 not 1 so a 10 item array will
    ' run from 0 to 9 and not 1 to 10!
    ' Split takes a string and then searches for a delimiter
    ' (in this case the comma followed by a space) in that string.
    ' It returns an array of strings which consists of all the
    ' text except the delimiters cut up into nice little pieces
    ' at the delimiters. The last two parameters specify the
    ' maximum number of delimiters to find (-1 = all) and the last
    ' one is what type of comparison to perform
    ' (0 = binary comparison, 1 = text comparison)
    arrSelectedTeams = Split(strSelectedTeams, ", ", -1, 1)
    ' UPDATE NOTE:
    ' One of our ever-vigilant visitors pointed out to me that this will cause problems 
    ' if any of yourchoices contain a comma. While he's right, I'm leaving the code 
    ' as is,because I feel exposing users to the split command and some array work  
    ' is a goodthing, but if you need to use commas try something like this: 
    'ReDim arrSelectedTeams(intNumberSelected - 1)
    'For I = 1 To intNumberSelected
    '    arrSelectedTeams(I - 1) = Request.Form("teams")(I)
    'Next 'I
     
    ' We now join our regularly scheduled program already in progress... 
    ' Show users the count of and string containing their choices
    %>
    <P>You selected <B><%= intNumberSelected %></B> team(s).</P>
    <P>Request.Form("teams") returned:</P>
    <P><FONT SIZE="-1"><B><%= strSelectedTeams %></B></FONT></P>
    <P>You can easily convert this to an array using the split command. 
The contents of that array are shown in the table below:</P>
    <TABLE BORDER="1">
        <TR>
           <TH>Array Element <FONT COLOR="#FF0000">*</FONT></TH>
            <TH>Value</TH>
        </TR>
        <%
        ' Some debugging lines if you start having problems
        'Response.Write LBound(arrSelectedTeams)
        'Response.Write UBound(arrSelectedTeams)
        ' Loop through the array showing one table row for each selection
        For I = LBound(arrSelectedTeams) To UBound(arrSelectedTeams)
            %>
            <TR>
                <TD><%= I %></TD>
                <TD><%= arrSelectedTeams(I) %></TD>
           </TR>
            <%
        Next 'I
        %>
    </TABLE>

    <P><FONT COLOR="#FF0000">*</FONT> 
Remember that VBScript arrays start counting from 0. 
 So a 10 item array will run from 0 to 9!</P>
    <%
    ' Some code showing fully qualified requests. Might be fun to
    ' play with or possible useful for debugging.
    'Dim Item
    'For Each Item in Request.Form
    '    Response.Write Request.Form.Key(Item) & ": "
    '    Response.Write Request.Form.Item(Item) & " "
    '    Response.Write Request.Form.Item(Item).Count & "<BR>"
    'Next
End If
%>
<!-- Save this file as index.html
-->
<FORM ACTION="multiple_selection.asp" METHOD="get">
    <SELECT NAME="teams" MULTIPLE SIZE="10">
        <OPTION>Anaheim Angels</OPTION>
        <OPTION>Atlanta Braves</OPTION>
        <OPTION>Arizona Diamondbacks</OPTION>
        <OPTION>Baltimore Orioles</OPTION>
        <OPTION>Boston Red Sox</OPTION>
        <OPTION>Chicago Cubs</OPTION>
        <OPTION>Chicago White Sox</OPTION>
        <OPTION>Cincinnati Reds</OPTION>
        <OPTION>Cleveland Indians</OPTION>
        <OPTION>Colorado Rockies</OPTION>
        <OPTION>Detroit Tigers</OPTION>
        <OPTION>Florida Marlins</OPTION>
        <OPTION>Houston Astros</OPTION>
        <OPTION>Kansas City Royals</OPTION>
        <OPTION>Los Angeles Dodgers</OPTION>
        <OPTION>Milwaukee Brewers</OPTION>
        <OPTION>Minnesota Twins</OPTION>
        <OPTION>Montreal Expos</OPTION>
        <OPTION>New York Mets</OPTION>
        <OPTION>New York Yankees</OPTION>
        <OPTION>Oakland Athletics</OPTION>
        <OPTION>Philadelphia Phillies</OPTION>
        <OPTION>Pittsburgh Pirates</OPTION>
        <OPTION>San Diego Padres</OPTION>
        <OPTION>San Francisco Giants</OPTION>
        <OPTION>Seattle Mariners</OPTION>
        <OPTION>St. Louis Cardinals</OPTION>
        <OPTION>Tampa Bay Devil Rays</OPTION> 
        <OPTION>Texas Rangers</OPTION>
        <OPTION>Toronto Blue Jays</OPTION>
    </SELECT>
    <BR>
    <INPUT type="submit" value="Send Team Selection">
</FORM>