Any ideas to solve this ?

juancuca

Hi guys, I hope some1 can help me with this.

I will write down a simplified version of my problem.
I have 2 SQL tables:

Cats, with ID, Name
Dogs, with ID, Name
--> this is simplified, I need them in 2 different tables.

I need the user to select either one cat or one dog, so I thought about using a select form with optgroups. Something like this:

<select name="catsndogs">
	<optgroup label="Cats">
	<option >Tiger</option>
	<option>Leopard</option>
	<option>Lynx</option>
	</optgroup>
	<optgroup label="Dogs">
	<option>Grey Wolf</option>
	<option>Red Fox</option>
	<option>Fennec</option>
	</optgroup>
	</select>

The user will submit this form and I would retrieve the var in $_POST['catsndogs'].

The problem is, I need to add that value to the DB and if it is either a dog or cat,

ie. :

 insert into table values ('cats', 'tiger')

or:

 insert into table values ('dogs', 'tiger')

Looking up for the name in the tables after submition is not an option.

Any suggestions on retrieving the "dogs" / "cats" values from the above form ?

English is my 2nd language, so Im sorry about my mispellings,

TIA

P.F.S.

dnast

It would be more like

INSERT INTO cats VALUES('tiger');
or
INSERT INTO dogs VALUES('tiger');

but still the same problem. 🙂

You will just have to test the values to decide which table you will use. Something like:

$pet = $_POST['catsndogs'];
if (($pet == 'tiger') || ($pet == 'leopard') || ($pet == 'lynx')) {
  $table = 'cats';
}
else {
  $table = 'dogs';
}

$query = "INSERT INTO $table VALUES('$pet')";
mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error());

That was just a simple example. You could do it many other ways. You'll just have to test the input.

juancuca

Thanks for the prompt response,
actually, this was ok:

ie. :

insert into table values ('cats', 'tiger')

or:

insert into table values ('dogs', 'tiger')

Im pulling the different 'cats' and 'dogs' values from the tables cats and dogs, but I will need to insert them in a 3rd table called something else...

if (($pet == 'tiger') || ($pet == 'leopard') || ($pet == 'lynx'))

That wont do cause this is a simplifiied version of the problem, I have several groups, not only 2, plus each group have a couple of dozen items in it.

Im going to try something like this later:

<select name="catsndogs"> 
    <optgroup label="Cats"> 
    <option value="Cats-Tiger">Tiger</option> 
    <option value="Cats-Leopard">Leopard</option> 
    <option value="Cats-Linx">Lynx</option> 
    </optgroup> 
    <optgroup label="Dogs"> 
    <option value="Dogs-Grey Wolf">Grey Wolf</option> 
    <option value="Dogs-Red Fox">Red Fox</option> 
    <option value="Dogs-Fennec">Fennec</option> 
    </optgroup> 
    </select>

and after the form is passed, do some string manipulation to get those values. Problem is that the value might have "-" in it, so its not just an explode... It would be an explode, get first value, implode the rest back together...

Anyway...

I think I will use this, but Im open to ideas if some1 has a better one...

TIA

P.F.S.