将数组发送到codeigniter中的函数

I have the following codes which sends an array to the function /chat in codeigniter

$(document).ready(function () {
    $('#submit').live('click', function (eve) {
        eve.preventDefault();
        $.ajax({
            url: "http://localhost/fq/index.php/splash/chat/",
            type: 'JSON',
            data: a,
            success: function (html) {
                alert(html);
            }
        });
    });

Let us assume that array a contains names of people only. ( John, James, Smith)

I want to be able to retrieve the all the values from the array in the function chat.

How can it be done?

Edit:

I need to retrieve the values from the JSON encoded array in this function (codeigniter)

   public function chat()
{


  //code to retrieve values

  $this->load->view('chat');

}

  data: a,

should

  data: $('form').serialize(), // 'form' may need to replace by your form selector

But if you want to send only an array like ['John', 'James', 'Smith']... then yours is just fine.

And use dataType: 'json' as configuration if you're expecting Object as response or dataType: 'html' for Html response.

Setting dataType will release you from extra parsing effort.

You should do it via JSON, by changing

type: POST

into

type: JSON

Take a look at: http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.getJSON/

Also I agree with thecodeparadox above, it's simply better practice