[Resolved] [Resolved] Updating existing info in a table

Calahan

I have a script below to update data in a table called job_cat. The script is simple enough in most cases except this one and I can't see a way around it.
Basically I have a table with catagories of job types in it all in 1 field.
I use the script below to pull all the entries from that table and populate text boxes:

//A query to return all fields in the job_cat table so that their values can be used to populate the fields on this page//
$get_job_catagories = "SELECT * FROM " .$Table. "";

//Submit the $get_job_catagories query to the database and assign the results to $job_cat_list//
$job_cat_list = mysql_query($get_job_catagories) OR die(mysql_error());
echo "<form method='POST' action='edit-catagories2.php'>
<center>
<table width='10%'>
    <tbody>";
while( $row = mysql_fetch_array($job_cat_list) )
{
echo "<tr><td><input name='job_cat' type='text' value='" .$row['job_cat'] . "'></tr></td>";
}
echo "
  </tbody>
  </table>
<p>
<input name='submit' type='submit' value='Update'>
</form>

This pulls all the entries out as I intended. Next I want to allow the user to update the entries (which is why they're in text boxes). Trouble is the entries are all in one field in the table so running the update with this script:

$job_cat_update="UPDATE " . $Table . " SET job_cat='" . $_POST['job_cat'] . "'" . "WHERE job_cat='" . $_POST['job_cat'] . "'";

mysql_query($job_cat_update) or die(mysql_error());

causes the fields to remain unchanged. If anyone has any bright ideas on how I could get around this it would be apreciated.

Drakla

With the query:

$job_cat_update="UPDATE " . $Table . " SET job_cat='" . $_POST['job_cat'] . "'" . "WHERE job_cat='" . $_POST['job_cat'] . "'";

You're checking the new value typed in against itself, so the old version in the datbase isn't been referenced. You could put a hidden field with the old value of the field in the query and do

]$job_cat_update="UPDATE " . $Table . " SET job_cat='" . $_POST['job_cat'] . "'" . "WHERE job_cat='" . $_POST['job_cat_old'] . "'";

But if there's a numerical primary key for each field it would be much simpler to use that.

Plus by the look of your script you're nameing ALL the input fields the same name - if doing that you need to add [] to the name and then deal with the return results as an array so

echo "<tr><td><input name='job_cat[]' type='text' value='" .$row['job_cat'] . "'></tr></td>";

is what you need to do, then deal with the submission in a while or foreach loop like:

foreach( $_REQUEST['job_cat'] as $job)
{
	$query="Update ... blah blah WHERE id=..."
}