Using Form Data into an array easily

scoyle74

Hello, I have looked at the other posts and suggestion on forms and arrays but they don't seem to quite provide the information I am looking for, hopefully someone can help me out or point me to a good tutorial that might help me out.

Basically what I am trying to do is create an online survey. My information is not pulled from a database but static on the form. I would like to be able to have the user fill out the survey/form (using radio buttons if possible), submit the information and have my php page parse the data and put it into an INSERT statement.

My mysql table would consist of five(5) fields

userid, int, auto_increment
skill, varchar
has_skill, varchar
confident, varchar
training, varchar

The portion of the form that will have the array date looks like this :

<tr>
<td>Word<input name="skill[]" type="hidden" value="Word"></td>
<td>
Yes <input id="has" name="has[]" type="radio" value="YES"> 
No <input id="has" name="has[]" type="radio" value="NO">
</td>
<td>
Yes <input id="conf" name="confident[]" type="radio" value="YES"> 
No <input id="conf" name="confident[]" type="radio" value="NO">
</td>
<td>
Yes <input id="train" name="training[]" type="radio" value="YES"> 
No <input id="train" name="training[]" type="radio" value="NO">
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>WordPerfect<input name="skill[]" type="hidden" value="WordPerfect"></td>
<td>
Yes <input id="has" name="has[]" type="radio" value="YES"> 
No <input id="has" name="has[]" type="radio" value="NO">
</td>
<td>
Yes <input id="conf" name="confident[]" type="radio" value="YES"> 
No <input id="conf" name="confident[]" type="radio" value="NO">
</td>
<td>
Yes <input id="train" name="training[]" type="radio" value="YES"> 
No <input id="train" name="training[]" type="radio" value="NO">
</td>
</tr>
....

Basically the users will go to the survey and for each 'Skill' select the Yes or No radio button for the 'Has Skill', 'Confident', and 'Training' sections.

My problem is having the php code parse the data so that it can be inserted into the table.

I have tried using the $_POST and the foreach and for loops but nothing seems to work properly.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

🙂

bastien

first catch the items with post, then implode them

//check for options and assign as needed to myOpts
    $numOpts = count($_POST['options'] );
    if ($numOpts>1){
       $myOpts=implode(",",$_POST['options']);
    }elseif ($numOpts==1){
       $myOpts=$_POST['options'];
    }else{
       $myOpts="";
     }

scoyle74

Thanks for the help, I can now see all the values in the array. However I am still having a problem manipulating the data into a format that I need.

Currently the array has the values like this:

ex)

Word, Yes, No, Yes, WordPerfect, No, No, No

What I need is to be able to format the output into the following:

Word, Yes, No, Yes
WordPerfect, No, No, No

I have tried using a for loop with a count feature but I am not sure if I'm doing it correctly. Is there an easier way to do this? What about using the explode() or the preg_split()?

Ideally, my output (or string) will be in such a format that I can create and execute (one or many) INSERT statement:

ex) INSERT INTO results (skill, has_skill, confident, training) VALUES ($skill, $has, $confident, $training)

The main reason is because the survey is going to have at least 50 different combinations of the four values.

thanks,
Scott

bastien

Do a simple loop for 4 items

scoyle74

Can you please tell me if I am on the right track or not. I am using the following code to produce this output:

code:

<?php

//check for options and assign as needed to myOpts
$numOpts = count($POST['itema'] );
if ($numOpts>1){
$myOpts=implode(" ",$POST['itema']);
}elseif ($numOpts==1){
$myOpts=$_POST['itema'];
}else{
$myOpts="";
}

$data = $myOpts;
$pieces = explode(" ", $data);
for($s=0;$s<count($pieces);$s++) {
print $pieces[$s].","; //to ensure that the spaces are being removed
}

$values = "INSERT INTO results (skill, has_skill, confident, training) VALUES ('".$pieces[0]."','".$pieces[1]."','".$pieces[2]."','".$pieces[3]."');";

print $values;
?>

output

pieces = Word,YES,YES,YES,WordPerfect,NO,NO,NO,

values = INSERT INTO results (skill, has_skill, confident, training) VALUES ('Word','YES','YES','YES');

The only thing I am wondering is how do I get the array values (pieces) to increment so that it will display the other values?

So again, am I on the right track or do I need to stop completely and do it differently before I royally mess it up
🙂

Scott

bastien

Close, you only needed to increment the counter by fours instead of ones

for($s=0;$s<count($pieces);$s+=4) {

print $pieces[$s].","; //to ensure that the spaces are being removed 


$values = "INSERT INTO results (skill, has_skill, confident, training) VALUES ('".$pieces[$s]."','".$pieces[$s+1]."','".$pieces[$s+2]."','".$pieces[$s+3]."');"; 

echo $values; //to test the input statement

//do inserts

}//close loop

scoyle74

Bastien, thanks very much for all your help. I really appreciate, we are almost there, however the output now is only showing the last four elements of the array, and not all eight.

ex)

for($s=0;$s<count($pieces);$s+=4) { 

print $pieces[$s].","; //to ensure that the spaces are being removed 


$values = "INSERT INTO results (skill, has_skill, confident, training) VALUES ('".$pieces[$s]."','".$pieces[$s+1]."','".$pieces[$s+2]."','".$pieces[$s+3]."');";  

echo $values; //to test the input statement 

//do inserts 

}//close loop

output:

Word,YES,YES,YES,WordPerfect,NO,NO,NO

INSERT INTO results (skill, has_skill, confident, training) VALUES ('WordPerfect','NO','NO','NO');

Is it possible to place the $s increment to the bottom of the loop or place the entire loop into a do/while loop? I have tried this but did not get the results expected, there fore I think I might not have it coded correctly.

thanks,
Scott


do {

  for($s=0;$s<count($pieces);$s++) { 
	print $pieces[$s].",<br><br>"; //to ensure that the spaces are being removed 

$values = "INSERT INTO results (skill, has_skill, confident, training) VALUES ('".$pieces[$s]."','".$pieces[$s+1]."','".$pieces[$s+2]."','".$pieces[$s+3]."');";  


echo $values; //to test the input statement 
$s+=4;
}//close loop

//do inserts 

$loopcounter++;
} while ($loopcounter <= count($pieces));

scoyle74

Bastien, again thanks for all your help. I think I have it figured out, I simply moved the $s increment to the bottom of the loop and instead of incrementing by 4, set it to three.

  for($s=0;$s<count($pieces);$s++) { 
     //print $pieces[$s]." "; //to ensure that the spaces are being removed 
$values = "INSERT INTO results (skill, has_skill, confident, training) VALUES ('".$pieces[$s]."','".$pieces[$s+1]."','".$pieces[$s+2]."','".$pieces[$s+3]."'); ";

echo $values; //to test the input statement 

$s+=3;

//do inserts 

}//close loop

Now the output is exactly what I am looking for :

Word YES NO YES WordPerfect NO YES NO

INSERT INTO results (skill, has_skill, confident, training) VALUES ('Word','YES','NO','YES');
INSERT INTO results (skill, has_skill, confident, training) VALUES ('WordPerfect','NO','YES','NO');

again, thanks for your help.😃

Scott