Does this work for checkbox ?

[ben oliver]

If I want to see if a checkbox is checked, shall I check

1. in html or JSp, I define a checkbox and give it "MyCheckBox" as "Name".
2. if it is checked, request.getParameter("MyCheckBoxName").equalsIgnoreCase("on") will be true. Right ?

[Ben Souther]

Originally posted by ben oliver:
If I want to see if a checkbox is checked, shall I check
2. if it is checked, request.getParameter("MyCheckBoxName").equalsIgnoreCase("on") will be true. Right ?

Not necessarily.
If your checkbox is created without a "value" attribute, the default value "on" will be sent up in the form request when the box is checked.

If you set a value, then the value will be sent up, if it is checked.

In either case, if the box is unchecked, the browser will send up nothing.
It will be as if the checkbox didn't exist in the form.
In this case, getParameter will return null.

Note: It will also return null if the name is missspelled.

[Christophe Verré]

I think that you won't get true or false, but only the names of checkboxes that were checked when submitted. If the checkboxex have the same name, you'll have to call getParameterValues

[Ben Souther]

Originally posted by Satou kurinosuke:
I think that you won't get true or false, but only the names of checkboxes that were checked when submitted. If the checkboxex have the same name, you'll have to call getParameterValues

In his first post, the original poster was checking for "on" (the default value for a checked box) with the String.equalsIgnoreCase method; which returns true or false.

This brings up another issue that I should have mentioned in the first post.
The code:

  request.getParameter("MyCheckBoxName").equalsIgnoreCase("on")   

will throw an NullPointerException if the checkbox is not checked.
In this case you will be trying to call a method of the String object when the string is null.

A more solid way of testing this would be to turn that line around.

 
if("on".equals(request.getParameter("MyCheckBoxName")){
    //box was checked
}else{
    // box was not checked
}
   

[Gregg Bolinger]

Isn't it safe to assume that you can just check for null?

if (request.getParameter("MyCheckBoxName") != null)
{
   // checkbox was checked
}
else
{
  // checkbox was not checked
}

Seems simpler to me.

[Ben Souther]

Originally posted by Gregg Bolinger:
Isn't it safe to assume that you can just check for null?

Yep.
I was pointing out a more general issue that people run into when testing form parameters.
Checkboxes are somewhat unique in that null can be an expected value.
[ August 17, 2006: Message edited by: Ben Souther ]

[Anselm Paulinus]

Originally posted by Ben Souther:
[QB

 
if("on".equals(request.getParameter("MyCheckBoxName")){
    //box was checked
}else{
    // box was not checked
}
   

[/QB]

if ("on".equals(request.getParameter("MyCheckBoxName"))

wouldn't that have thrown a null pointer if the MyCheckBoxName is null ie when the check box was not checked?

[Bear Bibeault]

Originally posted by Anselm Paulinus:

wouldn't that have thrown a null pointer if the MyCheckBoxName is null ie when the check box was not checked?

No, it will not. You can pass a null into an equals method without fear of an NPE.

This idiom of comparing a value that may or not be null to a string literal is quite commonly used.
[ August 17, 2006: Message edited by: Bear Bibeault ]

[abhishek gowlikar]

String _enabled=request.getParameter("enabled");
int ena=-1;
if("on".equals(_enabled))
{
ena=1;
}
else
ena=0;
<input type=checkbox" name="enabled">
<!-- Definatly it will Work ----->