Two Form Object to One Table Field

jameseymour

Hello

I was wondering what the best way to do the following was:

I have a html form (with php) that is used to add records to a mysql database.

One field in the database is teamMembers, which I am making into a large varchar field.

My boss wants a list box with a list of employees names from my branch to be on the form. He also wants a textbox under the listbox so if a employees name is not in the listbox they can have their name manually typed in. Then when the submit button is pressed values from the listbox and the textbox are stored in the mysql table.

I need to know the best way to take ALL the selected values from the listbox AND the string from the textbox and throw it all into the one varchar field in the database. This field will be displayed on another php page so the teamMember field has to have all employee names that are in it from the list box and textbox to be formated the same way.

Thanks for your time.

devinemke

are you storing all of the teamMembers in a single field? this is a bad idea. store each teamMember in separate records in a separate table. you can then easily query that table to build your list box. when the form is submitted just check to see if anything was entered into the text box and if so add it to the teamMembers table. you may want to do some simple form validation to make sure that the user does not enter a duplicate name into the teamMembers table.

jameseymour

teamMembers is just one field in a table. The table is used to store information about projects at work, each project is a record. Each record has one field that has a list of employees that are working on the project called teamMembers. All this field will be used for is to accept values from a textbox and a listbox and then be outputed merely as text in a html document, not outputed back into the form.

This is just a small database and form.

If I made a seperate table for each field that I needed input from a textbox and listbox at the same time it would make this project a bit bigger, but if it is infact the best way I will take the time and do it. Is that what you still suggest?