Passing data from an HTML form via an array to $_POST - html

Question

The following is written in ASP.NET Razor.
I have a page that dynamically creates lines in an HTML form based on results from a database query. Each row in the result set corresponds to one row in the form. Each row has two input fields that I need to be able to pass via $_POST.
foreach (var #row in list) {
<li>
<span style="width: 100px; display: inline-block">#row.Name</span>
<input type="text" name="time[]" />minutes on
<input type="text" name="date[]" />
</li>
}
My expectation is that I would then be able to access and iterate over the data like this:
var timeList = Request.Form["time"];
foreach (var time in timeList) {
// Stuff
}
But this isn't working. I keep getting an "Object reference not set to an instance of an object" error for timeList. Is what I'm trying to do even possible? Any idea what's wrong?

Answer 1

Try removing the square brackets from your names:
foreach (var #row in list) {
<li>
<span style="width: 100px; display: inline-block">#row.Name</span>
<input type="text" name="time" />minutes on
<input type="text" name="date" />
</li>
}
The loop will create duplicate names which forms arrays in HTML, so you get what you want. However, I'm not sure if that will work when the list has a single item, so test that.

Answer 2

Client HTML:
<form action="~/Page" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="product_0_id" value="0" />
<input type="text" name="product_0_name" value="Prod. #1" />
<input type="hidden" name="product_1_id" value="1" />
<input type="text" name="product_1_name" value="Prod. #2" />
</form>
Server:
string youGroupKey = "product";
Dictionary<string, string>[] values = Request.Form
.AllKeys
.Where(k => k.StartsWith(youGroupKey))
.GroupBy(k => k
.Substring(youGroupKey.Length + 1, 1),
(a, b) => {
return b
.ToDictionary(c => c
.Substring(youGroupKey.Length + 3), d => Request.Form[d]);
}
)
.ToArray();