[SOLVED] PHP multi-dimension disaster topped with mysql dilemmas

[spitfire1945]

Fear not, the problem is not as dramatic as the title suggests

 

I have a few input textfields in a form. I am just having a bit of a coder block as to how to get these variables into the database.

 

Ill start with the variables:

 

$_POST['a_sf']

$_POST['a_be']

$_POST['a_bb']

 

$_POST['b_sf']

$_POST['b_be']

$_POST['b_bb']

 

$_POST['c_sf']

$_POST['c_be']

$_POST['c_bb']

 

and I have a db table called table with columns id, sf, be, and bb

 

I want the table to store data like this

 

+---+------+-----+-----+----+

| id  | type  |  sf  |  be  | bb  |

+---+------+-----+-----+----+

| 1  |  a    | 12  |  78  |  54 |

+---+------+-----+-----+----+

| 2  |  b    | 98  |  45  |  37 |

+---+------+-----+-----+----+

 

so on and so forth..

 

any coding ideas as to how I can achieve this? I have tried several for loops and foreach loops et al but since the post variables are alphabets and not numerical its a little bit of a pain in the bum. or maybe a better way to setup the variable names for the text fields perhaps?

[xtopolis]

I'm not sure what you're asking?  Since you only have 9 elements, why not just insert them using mysql?

<?php
  $a_sf = intval($_POST['a_sf']);
  $a_be = intval($_POST['a_be');
//etc..
  $b_sf = intval($_POST['b_sf']);
//etc..

$sql = "INSERT INTO yourTable (id,type,sf,be,bb) VALUES 
('','a','$a_sf','$a_be','$a_bb'),
('','b','$b_sf','$b_be','$b_bb'),
('','c','$c_sf','$c_be','$c_bb')";
?>

 

However, if you're saying you have more than this..  Perhaps a foreach($_POST as $key => $val)

..splitting the key name on "_" and maybe putting them into an array based on $splitresult[0]... depends..

[GingerRobot]

or maybe a better way to setup the variable names for the text fields perhaps?

 

Yup. Use arrays for the names of the text fields. I'd go with two dimensions like this:

 

<input type="text" name="data[a][sf]" /><br />
<input type="text" name="data[a][be]" /><br />
<input type="text" name="data[a][bb]" /><br />

<input type="text" name="data[b][sf]" /><br />
<input type="text" name="data[b][be]" /><br />
<input type="text" name="data[b][bb]" /><br />

//etc

 

Then use PHP like this:

 

$temp = array();
$temp2 = array();
foreach($_POST['data'] as $type => $stats){
    $temp2[] = "('".mysql_real_escape_string($type)."'";
    foreach($stats as $stat){
        $temp2[] = "'".mysql_real_escape_string($stat)."'";
    }
    $temp[] = join(',',$temp2).')';
    $temp2 = array();
}
$sql = join(',',$temp);
$sql = "INSERT INTO yourtable SET (type,sf,be,bb) VALUES $sql";
mysql_query($sql) or trigger_error(mysql_error(),E_USER_ERROR);

[spitfire1945]

haHA!

 

Geniuses

 

Thanks guys Ginger's ideas seems a bit more feasible since its scalable. I just couldn't get my head around multi-dimensional arrays. I will try the code and get back to you guys.

 

In the meantime, thanks.