[SOLVED] Inserting and Updating Arrays...

[briant]

I recently discovered arrays... when I say recent, I mean today, haha...

 

I've looked around and its incredible hard to find a tutorial on it.

 

Let's say this is my array:

$names = array("Brian","Billy","Bob","Joe");

 

How am I suppose to update my array?

mysql_query("UPDATE site_table SET friends = 'what do i put in here' WHERE user_id = 2");

 

Also, if I want to add another name to the array, how am I to do that?

 

Thanks in advance.

[pocobueno1388]

Here is how you would add a name later on in the script

 

<?php

$names = array("Brian","Billy","Bob","Joe");

//Add a name
$names[] = "Cindy";

?>

 

As for your query question, I would need to see how you had your database table setup to know how to insert the information.

[briant]

I set the data type to text for that "friends" field. Isn't the array suppose to appear in one field?

[pocobueno1388]

So you want it to appear in the database in a text field as one line like so?

Brian Billy Bob Joe

 

If thats how you want it, then you would do this:

 

<?php

$names = array("Brian","Billy","Bob","Joe");

$query = "UPDATE site_table SET friends = '" . implode($names, " ") . "' WHERE user_id = 2"
$result = mysql_query($query)or die(mysql_error());

?>

 

[briant]

Thanks pocobueno1388 for your rapid responses.

 

OK, I think I might not have understood the use of arrays...

 

Am I still able to call upon the the friends field as an array? like $friends[3]? And it would show Bob.

[pocobueno1388]

Thanks pocobueno1388 for your rapid responses.

 

OK, I think I might not have understood the use of arrays...

 

Am I still able to call upon the the friends field as an array? like $friends[3]? And it would show Bob.

 

Yes, you will still be able to call which name you want from the array by using the key like you did.

 

But Bob would be $friend[2] because the counter starts at 0...here is an example.

 

<?php

$names = array("Brian","Billy","Bob","Joe");
                  0       1      2     3

 

Does that make sense?

[Stooney]

In the example above, implode() just condenses the array into a string, separating each element with a space in that instance.  Just in case that was unclear

[briant]

Thanks I knew it was 2, I don't know why I put 3.

 

Anyways, what I meant to say was, if I

 

SELECT friends FROM site_table WHERE user_id = 2;

 

Will the Friends from the database still be an array? or just a string?

[Stooney]

It's a string when it comes from the database.  You can't store an actual array in a database, only the proper information for a script to rebuild the array after the query.

[pocobueno1388]

They would be in a string. Although you can easily change it back to an array if you wanted like this:

 

<?php

//we will say this is the variable from the database
$friends = $row['friends'];

//put them back into an array
$friends = explode(" ", $friends);

?>

[briant]

Wow, awesome pocobueno1388... you are very knowledgeable.

 

One last thing and I'll leave you alone. Let's say instead of a " " space, since I might have a name that includes the last name "Bob Barker". I want all my array stored in the database with brackets.

 

For example:

[brian][billy][bob Barker][Joe][Cindy]

 

How am I suppose to explode that into an array?

Maybe it's this?

$friends = explode("[", $friends, "]");

[pocobueno1388]

Instead, why don't you just separate them by commas? That way you don't have to deal with the pain of selecting names in between two characters.

 

Brian, Billy, Bob, etc

[briant]

Hmm, maybe, just maybe I could, haha... thanks a lot for your help. I appreciate your time.

[pocobueno1388]

No problem