How can hidden fields be effectively used in HTML forms to handle checkbox inputs in PHP?

When dealing with checkbox inputs in HTML forms, hidden fields can be effectively used to ensure that unchecked checkboxes are still submitted with a default value. This is important because unchecked checkboxes do not get submitted as part of the form data. By using hidden fields with the same name as the checkboxes, we can ensure that a value is always submitted, regardless of whether the checkbox is checked or not. 

```php
<form method="post" action="process_form.php">
  <input type="checkbox" name="option1" value="1">
  <input type="hidden" name="option1" value="0">
  
  <input type="checkbox" name="option2" value="1">
  <input type="hidden" name="option2" value="0">
  
  <input type="submit" value="Submit">
</form>
```

In the above code snippet, we have two checkboxes with the name "option1" and "option2". For each checkbox, we have a corresponding hidden field with the same name but a default value of "0". This way, if the checkbox is not checked, the hidden field with the value of "0" will be submitted instead.

Keywords

hidden fields HTML forms checkbox inputs PHP handling

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