is this the best way to do this?

Anon

hi
below is part of a function. i have a value in a table, called 'pass', it's set at 0 by default.
when a user hits 'save' on a submission form for the first time, it checks to see if the value for pass is '0', if it is it executes an insert statement into the table, then changes the value of pass to 1.
if pass=1, and the user hits the save button on a submission form, the function executes an update statement on the table instead.

here's the code

$result = mysql_query( "select *
from mjp3
where userid = '$userid'");
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result); //getting info from row in db

//if 1st time submitting info

$pass = $row['pass'];

if ($pass == "0")

$result = mysql_query("insert into mjp3 values
('$userid', '1', '$location')");
if (!$result)
return "Could not save your information in the database - please try again later.";

//if not the 1st time submitting info
if ($pass == "1")

$result = mysql_query("update mjp3
set location='$location'
where userid='$userid'");
if (!$result)
return "Could not save your information in the database - please try again later.";
return true;
}

is this the best way to do this?
your thoughts would be appreciated
thanks

poss

Anon

So you have a record in this table for every userid? If so then you are going to end up with 2 records every time pass = 0.

Here is what I see your database has this information:

userid = 1
pass = 0
location =

So when userid 1 comes in you see that pass is 0 so you insert a new record, and now your datbase has this:

userid = 1
pass = 0

location =

userid = 1
pass = 1
location = somewhere

2 records for userid 1.

Unless you want 2 records both of your statements should be updates, and one of them just changes the pass value as well as the location value.

Anon

well, the first time this function checks 'pass', there is no record associated with that particular userid at that particular moment, so i'm not getting duplicate records.

$result = mysql_query( "select *
from mjp3
where userid = '$userid'");
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result); //getting info from row in db
//if 1st time submitting info
$pass = $row['pass'];

if ($pass == "0")

$result = mysql_query("insert into mjp3 values
('$userid', '1', '$location')");
if (!$result)
return "Could not save your information in the database - please try again later.";

the above if statement executes rather than the second. however, pass isn't actually equal to 0 for the row associated with that userid because there no row for that userid yet. this just happens to work, although i think it may not be the best way to check which if statement to execute based on the value of 'pass'

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