Checkboxes

[rghayes]

I am designing a voting webpage where in users can choose multiple values and all are submitted to a mysql database. I am using checkboxes. I can get one value to go in great, but its the mutiple value thing that has me pulling my hair out. Can someone PLEASE help a beginner out??

[Barand]

put [] at end of checkbox names so they are posted as an array

 

 

<input type="checkbox" name="myvote[]" value="1" />

<input type="checkbox" name="myvote[]" value="2" />

<input type="checkbox" name="myvote[]" value="3" />

[rghayes]

Trying now, but still not working I am using the an array as shown above and then $vote=$_REQUEST['myvote']; to request what has been checked. Is there a better way?

[Barand]

$_REQUEST['myvote'] will be an array if any are checked.

 

foreach ($_REQUEST['myvote'] as $vote) echo $vote;

[rghayes]

That works but it shows all the checked values shoved together likethis. It still only inputs the last on chosen into the db.

[farahZ]

Add

, <br>;

aftr the echo part to view choices on lines

And then run an array sending value by value to the db

If u want all values to be sent as a string, concatenate them into one string separated by , and then send the stribg itself

[Barand]

You have told us nothing about your tables or how you plan to store the votes so what more can we tell you?

[jazzman1]

Well, as Barand said you have to tell us about your database structure, so I wrote a simple example how to insert multiple radio values to database.

 

In this example I'm going to use Barand's example.

 

You can take a look that thread too - http://forums.phpfreaks.com/topic/267013-looping-multiple-rows-into-database/

<?php
if(!empty($_POST['Submit'])) {
   
$votes = $_POST['myvote'];


// build a query string .....
$sql = "INSERT INTO `tbl_name`(`votes`) VALUES";

    foreach ($votes as $vote) {
        
    $sql .= "(".$vote;
    // trim the last comma from a query string in case you have multiple values
    //$sql = rtrim($sql, ',');
    
    $sql .= "),";
    }
    
// trim the last comma from a query string
$sql = rtrim($sql, ',');

//echo '<pre>' . print_r($sql, true) . '</pre>';

}


?>
<form method="post">
    
    <input type="checkbox" name="myvote[]" value="1" />

    <input type="checkbox" name="myvote[]" value="2" />

    <input type="checkbox" name="myvote[]" value="3" />
    
    <input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Go!" />
</form>

Results:

 

INSERT INTO `tbl_name`(`votes`) VALUES(1),(3)

Edited May 6, 2013 by jazzman1

[rghayes]

OK, my database just has entries for each choice represented by each check box and I need to keep up with how many times an item is voted on.

[jazzman1]

OK, my database just has entries for each choice represented by each check box and I need to keep up with how many times an item is voted on.

 Well, I think it's time to show us what you've done so far

[rghayes]

Ok here is my PHP.  I think my biggest problem now is I need to update the count in the db not really add anything

 

 

 

<?php 

 $vote=$_POST['vote'];

 

 

 

$tstring = implode(',' , $vote); echo $tstring; 

 

$con = mysql_connect("localhost","root","YES");

if (!$con) 

{

die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());

}

mysql_select_db("poll", $con);

//insert to the table

$sql="update poll_results

            set num_votes = num_votes + 1

            where candidate = '$tstring'";

if (!mysql_query($sql,$con))

  {

  die('Error: ' . mysql_error());

  }

echo "CheckBox value succesfully added";

mysql_close($con)

?>

[jazzman1]

Try,

$vote = $_POST['vote'];

$tstring = implode(',', $vote);

$sql="update `poll_results`
            set `num_votes` = `num_votes` + 1
            where candidate IN ('".$tstring."')";

Edited May 6, 2013 by jazzman1

[rghayes]

Didn't work, sends nothing to the db when multiple entries are chosen. works fine if only one is chose.

[Barand]

You have told us nothing about your tables or how you plan to store the votes so what more can we tell you?

[rghayes]

Only one table with 2 columns. First column is the name of what is being voted for and the second column keeps up with the number of votes. This is what I think is giving me such a hard time, all I need to do is update the number of votes in the db not really add data.

[jazzman1]

So, my fault.

 

Try this and give me back the result of the echo, because I'm not using my machine:

$vote = $_POST['myvote']; 

$tstring = implode(',',array_map('mysql_real_escape_string', $vote));

$sql="update `poll_results`
            set `num_votes` = `num_votes` + 1
            where candidate IN ($tstring)";

echo $sql;

Edited May 7, 2013 by jazzman1

[rghayes]

This is what was returned on submit:

 

Notice: Undefined index: myvote in C:\xampp\htdocs\belltion\show_poll.php on line 2

Warning: array_map(): Argument #2 should be an array in C:\xampp\htdocs\belltion\show_poll.php on line 4

Warning: implode(): Invalid arguments passed in C:\xampp\htdocs\belltion\show_poll.php on line 4
update `poll_results` set `num_votes` = `num_votes` + 1 where candidate IN ()

Edited May 7, 2013 by rghayes

[jazzman1]

Ah.....change the array to $vote = $_POST['vote'];

[Barand]

Only one table with 2 columns. First column is the name of what is being voted for and the second column keeps up with the number of votes. This is what I think is giving me such a hard time, all I need to do is update the number of votes in the db not really add data.

 

A lot easier to store

 

userid | vote

 

where vote is the checkbox value. If they vote for 3 items, write 3 records (one for each)

 

All you have to do later is query the db to get the counts

 

 

SELECT vote, COUNT(*) as total
FROM votes
GROUP BY vote
ORDER BY total DESC

[rghayes]

OK now it gave me this:

 

 

update `poll_results` set `num_votes` = `num_votes` + 1 where candidate IN (TomJo,AlJac,AmyThom,ArthurBo,BillyMid,KarenMil)

[jazzman1]

The correct sql string should be - update `poll_results` set `num_votes` = `num_votes` + 1 where candidate IN ('TomJo','AlJac','AmyThom','ArthurBo','BillyMid','KarenMil');

I'm not at home right now, I am going to create later if I have a time

Edited May 7, 2013 by jazzman1

[Barand]

How do you stop someone repeatedly submitting the same vote?

 

if you store

 

userid | vote

 

with unique key on both fields it makes it impossible

[jazzman1]

Barand is right!

 

Going back to the query above and the implode function try this, not tested but.... I think is going to be correct:

$vote = $_POST['vote']; 

$tstring = "'" . implode("', '", array_map('mysql_real_escape_string', $vote)) . "'";

$sql="UPDATE `poll_results`
            SET `num_votes` = `num_votes` + 1
            WHERE `candidate` IN ($tstring)";

echo $sql;

[rghayes]

I still am still  struggling with this but please check out my updated code. After some serious research I found this but I keep getting Fail to add test_value.

 

 

if (!$db_conn = new mysqli('localhost', 'root', 'YES', 'charity_db'))

{

  echo 'Could not connect to db<br />';

  exit;

}

 

if(isset($_POST["vote"])) 

{$vote = $_POST["vote"];} 

else {$vote=array();}

 

for ($i="0"; $i<count($vote); $i++) { 

if(!is_numeric($vote[$i])) {$vote[$i]="";} 

if(empty($vote[$i])) {unset($vote[$i]);}}

 

$vote = implode ("<>", $vote); 

$vote = "<>".$vote.""; 

$sql = "INSERT INTO data_tbl (`id`, `choice`) VALUES (NULL, '$vote')"; 

$res=mysql_query($sql) or die ("Fail to add test_value");

 

$sql = "select id, choice from data_tbl limit 1"; 

$res=mysql_query($sql) or die ("Fail to get test"); 

$test = explode('<>',$pres[1]); 

for ($i="0"; $i<count($vote); $i++) { 

if(empty($vote[$i])) {unset($vote[$i]);} }

 

?>

[jazzman1]

What was happened with my code above?

 

Instead die("some text here") use die(mysql_error()) and let's see the error messages.