use array contents to query mySQL database

[alxjohnson]

Hi,

basically I'm passing menu (pulldown) selections from an html page through to a php page with a script which will then use the selections made to query a mySQL database. The selections that come through to the script are picked up with the $_POST and passed into a variable $whatever

The below code is an example of what I have (all working) so far:

======

<?php

//get answers form selections and hold them in variables
$selection1 = $POST['selection1'];
$selection2 = $POST['selection2'];
$selection3 = $_POST['selection3'];

//put all incoming selections into an array
$arr = Array(1=>$selection1, $selection2, $selection3);

for ($i = 0; $i < count($arr); $i++){
echo " $arr[$i] \n";
}

?>

If I haven't explained this well please let me know. In essence I'm creating a system for selecting a product from various questions answered by the user then the system matches the answers (selections) from the user to the data held in the database.

Thanks very much.

[sapoxgn]

why dont use just:

SELECT field FROM database WHERE data=$var1 OR data=$var2 OR data=$var3

dunno if it works.. i m noob btw logically it should work

[alxjohnson]

Thanks for that. What I'm really looking for is what you've suggested but not just using OR because there are a series of pulldown menus. You don't have to select them all but the ones you do select are the ones that will be used to query the database so I don't want it to be just an OR, it needs to be an AND (but only when a selection has been made, ie selection1 AND selection6 AND selection7) or along those lines....have I just answered my own question?

Cheers in advance!

[alxjohnson]

I'm not sure how to query the database with all the elements of an array. Here's what I have....

======

for ($i = 0; $i < count($arr); $i++){

$query = mysql_query("SELECT $arr[$i] FROM table");

}

======

Thanks in advance !

[Roger_Ramjet]

Just use the POST vars to build a query dynamically.

$query = "SELECT * FROM table WHERE ";
$and = 0;

if (isset($_POST['select1'])) {
   $query .= "field = '" . $_POST['select1'] . "'";
   $and=1;
}

if (isset($_POST['select2'])) {
   if ($and==1) {
       $query .= " AND ";
   }
   $query .= "field = '" . $_POST['select2'] . "'";
   $and=1;
}

if (isset($_POST['select3'])) {
   if ($and==1) {
       $query .= " AND ";
   }
   $query .= "field = '" . $_POST['select3'] . "'";
   $and=1;
}

You could probably tighten the code but that would be the logic of it.

[alxjohnson]

Thanks for that!