[Resolved] changing multiple records with emphasis on arrays

Lcousins

Hi,

99% of the time when coding in php I have managed to avoid using arrays. many books and many hours of invested time I have never got comfortable with them, both in how or why they work. They are my one pretty major php bugbear.

Now I think I have no choice, i'm trying to make a form which allows the user to change the numbered order of a variable number of modules. here is the form -

<?
echo "<form name=form1 method=post action=\"moduleorder.php\"><table><tr><td>Module name</td><td>Module order</td></tr>";
$db = mysql_connect("localhost", "username", "password");
mysql_select_db("databasename",$db);
$result = mysql_query("select * from main_modules",$db); 
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)){
echo "<tr><td>".$row["module_name"]."</td><td><input name=\"order\" type=\"text\" value=\"".$row["module_order"]."\"></td></tr>";
}
echo "<tr><td><input name=\"submit\" type=\"submit\"></td><td></td></tr></table></form>";
?>

now I've read a number of solutions given on this board for solving the changing multiple records at once problm, unfortunately my issues with arrays have so for defeated me in terms of understanding the solutions. Would anyone please be kind enough to guid me as to what I need to do in the code to process this page with extra explanation when it comes to anything involving arrays??

thanks in advance

Lcousins

EDIT: to leave it a little less open ended I am assuming I need to create an array which stores the 'module_id' and the order number as imputted by the user in the box together, and then when processing it I need to extract each pair of data out of the array, updating the sql database each time?? I know how to do none of that, but hopefully that is the right concept...

Lcousins

right, simplifying it (hopefully) a bit more in the hope making it easier for people to help me, taking the form detailed in the above post, how do I change it so that what is collected when it is submitted is an array in containing list of the module id's and the connected order number for each id?

and then how do I process that array to allow me to update each module record in the database with the new order number?

thanks

Luke

czambran

<? 
echo "<form name=form1 method=post action=\"moduleorder.php\"><table><tr><td>Module name</td><td>Module order</td></tr>"; 
$db = mysql_connect("localhost", "username", "password"); 
mysql_select_db("databasename",$db); 
$result = mysql_query("select * from main_modules",$db);  

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)){ 
echo "<tr><td>".$row["module_name"]."</td><td><input name=\"order[$row['module_order']\" type=\"text\" value=\"".$row["module_order"]."\"></td></tr>"; 
} 
echo "<tr><td><input name=\"submit\" type=\"submit\"></td><td></td></tr></table></form>"; 
?>

On the processing page you should use something like foreach to go through the array.

Lcousins

thanks for that, a few more questions though -

input name=\"order[$row['module_order']\" type=\"text\" value=\"".$row["module_order"]."\">

so if i'm understanding this correctly this creates an array called 'order' that stores the current module_order values, but does it also store the new module_order values as well?

bit confused

luke

tsinka

Hi,

what happens if someone submits the form is that you get an array that looks like

array(old_order1=>submited_order1, old_order2=>submitted_order2,...);

But the problem is that you don't know which ids that values apply to. So changing the code to:

echo "<tr><td>".$row["module_name"]."</td><td><input name=\"order[".$row['id']."]\" type=\"text\" value=\"".$row["module_order"]."\"></td></tr>";

That will submit an array looking like:

array(module_id1=>submitted_order1,
module_id2=>submitted_order2,...);

Change 'id' to the id field name.

EDIT: Another problem is that you need to make sure that the users only submit numeric values and that all the values are different.

Thomas

Lcousins

wow, thanks that now works a charm. Not totally sure I understand how it works yet but still, I can look into that when I have a bit more time. many thanks!!

error checking next, but at least I have a clue what I am doing there 😉

luke