posting multi-form array data into mysql table

[ptaylor2005]

Hi,
Am stumped on this one...
have a form that gathers user's previous work history. The fields are :
Company name,
Title,
Location,
start date,
end date
Job duties

The problem is these fields appear three times on the page, allowing the users to fill in up to three previous jobs.
The idea was to insert the form data into the table, using up to three rows, but of course this would vary depending on how many previous jobs they entered.

the various form fields on the HTML page are named as follows:

<input type="text" size="52" name="comp1" class="textbox">
<input type="text" size="52" name="title1" class="textbox">
<select size="1" name="smonth1" class="textbox">
<option value="1">January</option>
<option value="2">February</option>
<option value="3">March</option>
etc...

the second iteration of this form is similar but appends "2" to the end of each form field name:

<input type="text" size="52" name="comp2" class="textbox">
<input type="text" size="52" name="title2" class="textbox">
<select size="1" name="smonth2" class="textbox">
<option value="1">January</option>
<option value="2">February</option>
<option value="3">March</option>
etc...

And the third iteration of course appends a "3" in the same manner...

Here is the code for the page that processes the for data:

$job_history_array = array();
for($z=0;$z<3;$z++) { //the counter stops at 3 because there are 3 iterations of the form fields
$jhnum = count($job_history_array);

$job_history_array[$jhnum]["company_name"] = $POST["comp$z"];
$job_history_array[$jhnum]["position_title"] = $POST["title$z"];
$job_history_array[$jhnum]["startdate"] = ($POST['syear$z']."-".$POST['smonth$z']."-".01);
$job_history_array[$jhnum]["enddate"] = ($POST['eyear$z']."-".$POST['emonth$z']."-".01);
$job_history_array[$jhnum]["location"] = $POST["joblocation$z"];
$job_history_array[$jhnum]["duties"] = $POST["desc$z"];
}

for($i=0;$i<count($jhnum);$i++) {
$querystring = "INSERT INTO new_resume_job_history(new_history_id,resume_id,company_name,position_title,startdate,enddate,location,duties) VALUES ('NULL','$res_id','$POST['comp$i']','$POST['title$i']','$POST['syear$i']."-".$POST['smonth$i']."-".01','$POST['eyear$i']."-".$POST['emonth$i']."-".01','$POST['joblocation$i']','$POST['desc$i']')";
$result = mysql_query($querystring) or die ('Problem: ' . mysql_error());

}

I have tried this several ways and it either throws an error or doesn't grab the data from the form at all.

Any help would be great,
Thanks.

[devinemke]

consider this example:

<form action="" method="POST">

job #1:<br>
company: <input type="text" name="jobs[1][company]"><br>
title: <input type="text" name="jobs[1][title]"><br><br>

job #2:<br>
company: <input type="text" name="jobs[2][company]"><br>
title: <input type="text" name="jobs[2][title]"><br><br>

job #3:<br>
company: <input type="text" name="jobs[3][company]"><br>
title: <input type="text" name="jobs[3][title]"><br><br>

<input type="submit" name="submit" value="submit">
</form>

<?php
if (isset($_POST['submit']))
{
	echo 'your queries might look like this:<br><br>';
	foreach ($_POST['jobs'] as $value)
	{
		echo "INSERT INTO table SET compnay = '" . $value['company'] . "', title = '" . $value['title'] . "'<br>";
	}
}
?>

you will definitely want to write some form validation code to make sure the required fields are filled in otherwise you could have a bunch of blank database entries.

[ptaylor2005]

Hey thanks for the reply.. I will give it a try.

anyway to tweak it so if the user only fills out 1 or 2 of the job boards, it would only insert that many in the table?

In other words some kind of check on the posted array contents, rather than the array count - which always seems to return 3 for the 3 job boards, even if only 1 or 2 are filled in.

Thanks!

[Drakla]

You should be validating the contents of the fields anyway, but you can use empty() or strlen, some regular expressions... just check the manual for string and variable functions