suryabuchwald

For anyone that\'s interested, I\'ll print the final code here. There are some extra sections - I realized there were item numbers like S-MM-3 as well as just S-3, and these had to have a different handler. I\'m sure there\'s a much cleaner way to write all this code, but at this point it works, so I\'m not complaining. Here it is: <?php do { ?><div align=\"center\"><font color=\"#333333\" face=\"Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif\"><span> <?php //////////// FORMAT THE INFORMATION ////////// $field_value = $row_rs_mine[\'item_number\']; //take the item number into a variable echo \"item number \" . $field_value; //echo to browser $field_array = explode(\'-\', $field_value); //split number into array, separating on -\'s /////////////////////////////////////////////////////// $array_count = count($field_array); // count the number of items in the array ///////////// SCRIPT FOR TWO-PART ARRAY ////////// if ($array_count == \'2\') { // if the array has only two parts, deal with the second part list($part_a, $part_B) = explode(\'-\', $field_value); // split the array into usable parts if(strlen($part_B) < \'4\') // check if the number is okay as-is if(strlen($part_B) == \'1\') { //add the appropriate number of zeroes $part_b = \"000\" . $part_b; } elseif (strlen($part_B) == \'2\') { $part_b = \"00\" . $part_b; } elseif (strlen($part_B) == \'3\') { $part_b = \"0\" . $part_b; }; $item_number_fixed = $part_a . \"-\" . $part_b; // restore original format echo \" was turned into: \" . $item_number_fixed . \"<br />\"; $item_id_string = $row_rs_mine[\'item_id\']; $update_sql = \"UPDATE pieces SET item_number = \'$item_number_fixed\' WHERE item_id = \'$item_id_string\'\"; mysql_query($update_sql, $conn_candyvision) or die(mysql_error()); ////////// SCRIPT FOR THREE_PART ARRAY ////////////// } elseif ($array_count == \'3\'){ list($part_a, $part_b, $part_c) = explode(\'-\', $field_value); // split the array into usable parts if(strlen($part_c) < \'4\') // check if the number is okay as-is if(strlen($part_c) == \'1\') { //add the appropriate number of zeroes $part_c = \"000\" . $part_c; } elseif (strlen($part_c) == \'2\') { $part_c = \"00\" . $part_c; } elseif (strlen($part_c) == \'3\') { $part_c = \"0\" . $part_c; }; $item_number_fixed = $part_a . \"-\" . $part_b . \"-\" . $part_c; // restore original format echo \" was turned into:\" . $item_number_fixed . \"<br />\"; $item_id_string = $row_rs_mine[\'item_id\']; $update_sql = \"UPDATE pieces SET item_number = \'$item_number_fixed\' WHERE item_id = \'$item_id_string\'\"; mysql_query($update_sql, $conn_candyvision) or die(mysql_error()); //////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ////////// SCRIPT FOR LARGER ARRAY ///////////////// } elseif ($array_count > \'3\'){ echo \" was left alone.\"; }; ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ?> </span></font> </div> <?php } while ($row_rs_mine = mysql_fetch_assoc($rs_mine)); ?>

Ah, the wisdom of hindsight Yes, all the data is now being entered in 4-digit format. However, we\'ve already entered some 2500 items - I\'d rather not redo them one by one. Management forgot to mention they wanted everything in a 4-digit format until now.

I\'ve got fields full of values like: S-1 AB-128 A-85 I need them to be: S-0001 AB-0128 A-0085 etc. My possible idea is to write a script that will look through the records one by one, detect a number, and make sure it\'s four digits long. If it\'s not, add zeroes to the left until it is four digits, then UPDATE the row. Not quite sure how I would do this, but it seems possible (with my limited knowledge of PHP). Thanks so much everyone!