Explain "$this->input->post()" in codeignitor

 

In CodeIgniter, the method $this->input->post() is used to safely retrieve POST data that is submitted through an HTML form using the POST method.

---

✅ Purpose:

It accesses POST data sent from a form in a secure and XSS-filtered way (if needed), rather than using the raw $_POST array.

---

🔍 Syntax:

$this->input->post('field_name');

---

📥 Example:

Suppose your HTML form has:

<form method="post" action="submit_form">
  <input type="text" name="username">
  <input type="submit" value="Submit">
</form>

In your controller:

public function submit_form() {
    $username = $this->input->post('username');
    echo "You entered: " . $username;
}

---

🧰 Features:

Feature	Description
$this->input->post('key')	Returns the value of the specific POST key
$this->input->post('key', TRUE)	Returns the value with XSS filtering enabled
$this->input->post()	Returns the entire POST array

---

🧪 Example with Filtering:

$username = $this->input->post('username', TRUE); // XSS cleaned

---

🔒 Why use it instead of $_POST?

• Security: Can apply XSS filtering automatically

• Consistency: Works well with CodeIgniter's input class

• Cleaner code: One point of access for all input data

---

🧾 Get all POST data as an array:

$postData = $this->input->post();  // Returns array

---

Let me know if you want comparison with $this->input->get() or $this->input->post_get() as well!