Order of request.getParameterNames()

Question

How do I get all the parameterNames in an HTML form in the same sequence as they are in the form.

i.e if the form contains .... FirstName, LastName, MiddleName and

Answer 1

I don't think there's nothing in the HTTP spec that forces browsers to send parameters in the order they appear in the form. You can work it around by prefixing a number to the name of the parameter like:

FirstName --> 0_FirstName
LastName --> 1_LastName
....

After that you could basically order the elements by the prefix. It is an ugly solution but it is the only way to do it. Something like ...

//Assuming you fill listOfParameters with all the parameters.
    Collections.sort(listOfParameters, new Comparator() {
       int compare(String a,String b) {
            return Integer.getInt(a.substring(0,a.indexOf("_"))) - Integer.getInt(a.substring(0,b.indexOf("_")))
       }
    }
    );
    for (String param : listOfParameters) {
        //traverse in order of the prefix
    }

By the way - does it really matters the order in which you receive the parameters ?