Multiple Select Data

sunil1972

I have 2 multiple select drop down menus on my HTML form. How do I save the selected data into a database if the user chooses more than one item from the select item.

kemu_

You have to use an array as the name of the multiselect box. Then depending on you database structure, u can either go thru the array item by item and save them separately into the db or you can use serialize()-function to add the whole array into one field in db...

sunil1972

Thanks for the help......Thankyou very much..

nemati_mojgan

kemu_ wrote:
You have to use an array as the name of the multiselect box. Then depending on you database structure, u can either go thru the array item by item and save them separately into the db or you can use serialize()-function to add the whole array into one field in db...

Hi,

I have the same problem and I have done the array in my select, but the result in my database in "Array" instead of id numbers.
Would you please help me in the coding at Insert statement.

Thank you,
Mojgan

kemu_

If you just try to save the array you got from the html-form into database, it will just save Array there. Array-type variables cant be saved in "array-form" into database. But you can save it by using serialize function

$stuff_to_insert_into_db = serialize($array_you_got_from_html);

When you get the the data back from database, you need to unserialize it, so you can use it as an array again.

$array = unserialize($data_from_db);

nemati_mojgan

kemu_ wrote:
If you just try to save the array you got from the html-form into database, it will just save Array there. Array-type variables cant be saved in "array-form" into database. But you can save it by using serialize function
$stuff_to_insert_into_db = serialize($array_you_got_from_html);
When you get the the data back from database, you need to unserialize it, so you can use it as an array again.
$array = unserialize($data_from_db);

Thanks for immediate response. I have a function to retrive data from database and populate into a multiselect list box. I need to insert the selected data to another table. for example, if the user_id (it comes after login) is 675, the result in my table should be:

user_id | soft_id

675 1
675 3
675 15
. .
. .
. .

The sunction and Insert code are as follows:

function get_software_list($soft_id= "")
{
  $sql = "SELECT * FROM software ORDER BY software ASC;";
  $query = mysql_query($sql);
  if($row = mysql_fetch_array($query))
  {
     $str .= "<select name='soft_id[]' size=\"10\" multiple >\n";
     //$str .= "<option value=\"\">Please choose . . .</option>\n";
     do
     {
        if($soft_id == $row["soft_id"])
        {
           $str .= "<option value=\"" . $row["soft_id"] . "\" selected=\"selected\">" . $row["software"] . "</option>\n";
        }
        else
        {
           $str .= "<option value=\"" . $row["soft_id"] . "\">" . $row["software"] . "</option>\n";
        }
     }
     while($row = mysql_fetch_array($query));

     $str .= "</select>\n";
  }
  return $str;

}

The Insert code:

// insert into "res_user_software"
         foreach($_POST as $key => $value)
        {
            if(strstr($key, "soft_id") && !is_blank($value))
            {
                $sql = "INSERT INTO res_user_software (user_id, soft_id) VALUES ('" . $user_id . "', '" . $value . "');";
                mysql_query($sql);
            }
        }

I would be thankful to have your help.

Thanks again
Mojgan

kemu_

while(list($key,$value) = each($_POST['soft_id'])){
     $sql = "INSERT INTO res_user_software (user_id, soft_id) VALUES ('" . $user_id . "', '" . $value . "');"; 
    mysql_query($sql);
}

That should do it 🙂

nemati_mojgan

kemu_ wrote:

while(list($key,$value) = each($_POST['soft_id'])){
     $sql = "INSERT INTO res_user_software (user_id, soft_id) VALUES ('" . $user_id . "', '" . $value . "');"; 
    mysql_query($sql);
}

That should do it 🙂

Thank you so much. That really works. It shows that you are an expert in PHP while I'm a beginner 😉

I was wondering if I could ask you more questions and learn from you 🙂

Thank you again,
Mojgan

kemu_

Glad to help! 😃 Cant really say im a expert, but i have done something 🙂 If you have some questions, just post here and you will prolly get faster answers than sending me a pm... but you can do that too 🙂

nemati_mojgan

kemu_ wrote:
Glad to help! 😃 Cant really say im a expert, but i have done something 🙂 If you have some questions, just post here and you will prolly get faster answers than sending me a pm... but you can do that too 🙂

Thank you again.

nemati_mojgan

kemu_ wrote:
Glad to help! 😃 Cant really say im a expert, but i have done something 🙂 If you have some questions, just post here and you will prolly get faster answers than sending me a pm... but you can do that too 🙂

Hi Kemu,
I was wondering if I could have your kind help again. You remember, I had a problem with multiselect listbox, and you kindly helped me solve that. Now, I want to insert data to a column of my table by comma seperating. Would you please help me with that? and if I want to upadate my table, how I can update this column with several soft_ids?

Thank you, 🙂
Mojgan

Conty

So from a really really new learner . .
If you are trying to enter data into two different tables using the same form and one of the options in the form is a multiple selection how would you do this? Do you have to create a new form or is the codfe just the same.

Thanks
just learning

nemati_mojgan

Conty wrote:
So from a really really new learner . .
If you are trying to enter data into two different tables using the same form and one of the options in the form is a multiple selection how would you do this? Do you have to create a new form or is the codfe just the same.

Thanks
just learning

Hi Conty,

I have a form with several fields. I want to change the structure for inserting data from multiselect listbox to my table. The function would be the same,but I don't know how to insert data to one column of a table in the way they be seperataed by comma.

Thanks a lot,
Mojgan