Concatinating a value in a field...

[Damascus]

How would I go about adding values in a field of an already existing record?

For instance, I have these values in a field:

12,3,4,22,4,534,23,

And I would like to add '35,' to the end of it.

anybody? 🙂

[sfhc]

$query="select field from table.....";

$result=mysql_query($query);

$resultArray=@mysql_fetch_array($result);

$newValue=$resultArray[1].", 35";

[Damascus]

That's actually the only way I knew how to do it, I was just wondering if there was a way where I'd only have to use 1 query instead of 2 + an array.

[[deleted]]

This is a VERY bad database design indeed.

For ex: what if you decide to remove '22' from all rows that contain '22'?

Instead, create a new table that holds one row for every one of these values, and link them to the 'current' records through their ID.

That way you can add new values by just inserting a new record in the second table, and putting in the ID of the record that the value belongs to, and ofcourse the actual value itself

original table:
id, whateverelse
1, ...
2, ...
3, ...

new table:
originalid, value
1,12
1,3
1,4
1,22
2,7
3,8
2,66
1,543

now you can add '35' to record '1' by inserting a record in the second table:
INSERT INTO secondtable (originalid,value) VALUES (1,35);

and you can get all values for record 1:
SELECT value FROM secondtable WHERE originalid=1;

[Damascus]

this field holds user id's from people that have voted in a poll. This will prevent them from voting more than once on a single poll. I don't want to use cookies for this and I'd rather not have a table specifically designed to hold that information; too messy.

I went ahead with my original idea; the one the first person posted. Thanks anywayz. 🙂

[[deleted]]

Actually it's your method that's messy, making your script do all the things that the database should be doing.

You'll find out soon enough.

[Damascus]

How is this messy:

		$getPoll = query("SELECT * FROM tblpolls WHERE poll_id = '{$_POST[pid]}'");

	$poll = mysql_fetch_array($getPoll);

	$poll['poll_voters'] = substr($poll['poll_voters'], 0, (strlen($poll['poll_users']) - 1));

	$voters = explode(",", $poll['poll_voters']);

	$matched = in_array($user['user_id'], $voters);

	if($matched == 1){

		message("Our records indicate that you have already voted for this poll, please wait until a new poll is issued and then vote again.", $serverPath);

	}

Where $user['user_id'] is the current logged on user's id. I don't plan on administrating this, once the user votes that's it.

I don't see a mess anywhere and I don't recall asking anyone's opinion on database design, which you seem to be the apparent all-knowing god of. :rolleyes:

[[deleted]]

Compare that method against the proper method and see the diffrence:

<?
$result=mysql_query("SELECT 1 FROM votes WHERE pollid=".$pollid." and userid=".$userid);
if (mysql_num_rows($result)==1)
{
// he already voted for this poll
}
else
{
//he did not vote yet.
}
?>

Can you spot the difference?

Maybe next time you should read what others post and take their hints, tips and even critisisms into consideration instead of repeating the weak argument that 'you never asked for advice'.

Did it ever occur to you that maybe you really are doing things the hard way? That maybe there really IS a better way? That maybe there are people out there who have seen this mistake being made a hundred times and seen it fail a hundred times?

You don't come here because you already know everything, you come here to learn. I come here to teach.
If you don't like to learn things you don't already know, then by all means go away and spend eternity working out complex routines to do incredibly simple tasks, be my guest. I've already been there and I warn others not to make the same mistakes I've made and seen being made.

And no I'm not the alknowing god of databases, I just know more than you.
For one thing; I can find the string-concatenation operator in SQL, which you seem to find very difficult to find.

[Damascus]

I understand completely what you are saying, I'm just telling YOU that I would rather NOT have a separate table to store that information. If preformance was an issue with this, which it isn't, I would probably do the same thing.

I came here asking whether or not there is a method that allows you to 'add' a string to a current value in a database (concatination). I did NOT come here to start a pissing contest.

If you don't like to learn things you don't already know, then by all means go away and spend eternity working out complex routines to do incredibly simple tasks, be my guest.

And I don't quite recall stating that I didn't know about your proposed method. Read my first post.

Oh wait, it seems that you already did:

For one thing; I can find the string-concatenation operator in SQL, which you seem to find very difficult to find.

Perhaps you could've just told me and this argument would never have happened. DOH! We got a winner.

[[deleted]]

I give up, you're too stupid for me, you win.

[Damascus]

Originally posted by vincente
I give up, you're too stupid for me, you win.

And so begin the witty retorts. :rolleyes: