Another UPDATE Question

[Dawie]

Look at the following:
"UPDATE table SET col1='$col1', col2='$col2' ...colz='$colz'
WHERE id='$id'"
I have 2 questions:
1. Is there a way of updating all columns without having to specify col 1 to col z in the SET statement? My problem is i don't know how many columns to specify in the SET because the user creates the columns.
2. I know I can establish the number of cols created by the user, but is there a way of using a PHP "while" statement within the SQL UPDATE or SET structure?
I'm kinda desperate now :-) Anybody any suggestions?
Thanks
Dawie

[khaldryck]

you'll have to create your query with php
with something like this :

i don't know how you can know how many columns you need,
the key is to loop while there are columns

$sql="UPDATE table SET ";
$i=1;
while(there are columns)
   $sql.=" col".$i."='".${"col".$i++}."',";
}
if($i>1) {
   $sql=substr($sql,0,-1); //remove the last ',' which would give an error
   $sql.="WHERE id='$id'";

mysql_query($sql,$connection);
} else {
echo "no columns to update";
}

[Dawie]

Thanks khaldryck. This is exactly what i needed!