Textarea list vs database entries

[triphp]

I have a textarea wherein users can input a string, i.e. names for example, line by line. And in my database I have a table that store the names.

I want to compare the names (one name per line) he entered in the textarea versus the names in the database. If the names he entered in the textarea is not yet in the database, it will be echoed back.

Does anyone know how to do the comparison? Is there a built-in function in PHP to do this? Any help or examples give is greatly appreciated :)

[HuggieBear]

I think you can do an array compare against two arrays, that would probably be the way to go... Look at [url=http://uk.php.net/manual/en/function.array-diff.php]array_diff()[/url].

Get both sets of data into an array, this should be pretty simple, if you're not sure, give us a shout back.

Regards
Huggie

[triphp]

Can you give an example how to turn the multi line entries in textarea to be an array?

[ToonMariner]

$names = $_POST['textarea'];
$names = explode("\r\n",$names);

THink that should do the trick...

[HuggieBear]

You should be able to use [url=http://uk.php.net/manual/en/function.explode.php]explode()[/url] for that.

[code]
<?php
$array = explode("\n", $_GET['name_textarea']);
?>
[/code]

Regards
Huggie

[triphp]

OK thanks for the replies. I'll try my best to not ask again :)