Ok, I've seen a lot of posts with questions about retrieving and displaying data from a mysql table into a textarea...

Now how about the other way??

Here's the deal...

User is entering data into a textarea field and pressing ENTER after each value. These "values" need to be written as separate entries in the database.

So If a user entered:
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
etc.

Each of these would be in the table as a separate record. NOT in one field all together...

Is this possible. I've been researching and toying with a foreach, but not real sure?

Appreciate the insight!

    Sure, you can put the data into an array by the split function.

    If it is from a textarea split it at "\n" which means that the input has to have a return. IE:
    Monday
    Tuesday

    not Monday Tuesday.

    If it is a space then split it at the space.

    After that is an array from the split function then foreach through it and insert it into the mysql table.

    --FrosT

      Here I think this is what you are looking for.
      Actually i didnt wrote the 'spilts()' function. I also wanted to do something similar and while i was searching in the google i found this function.

      <html>
<head>
<title> new document </title>
</head>
<script language="javascript">

var splitIndex = 0;
var splitArray = new Array();

function splits(string,text) {
    var strLength = string.length, txtLength = text.length;
    if ((strLength == 0) || (txtLength == 0)) return;

var i = string.indexOf(text);
if ((!i) && (text != string.substring(0,txtLength))) return;
if (i == -1) {
    splitArray[splitIndex++] = string;
    return;
}

splitArray[splitIndex++] = string.substring(0,i);

if (i+txtLength < strLength)
    splits(string.substring(i+txtLength,strLength),text);

return;
}


function doit()
{
	var str='';
	splitIndex = 0;
	splits(document.f1.t1.value,'\n');
    for (var i=0; i<(splitIndex-1); i++)
	{
		str += splitArray[i]+'<br/>';
	}

document.f1.t1.value=str;	
}

</script>
<body>
<?php
if(isset($_POST['s1']))
{
	print  $_POST['t1'];	
}
?>

<form name="f1" action="test.php" method="post" onsubmit="return doit()">

<textarea name="t1"></textarea>
<input type="submit" name="s1" value="submit">

</form>
</body>
</html>

      Good luck,

      Regards,
      Niroshan

        a year later

        This is exactly what I need, except that the user must hit enter after the last entry or it doesn't post the last entry. Not hard to remember for you and I but I have to idiot proof all my applications. Any way around this?

          I came up with a simpler way to do this, using preg_split, and it captures all the lines regardless of whether you use a comma, enter, etc. you can even mix/match. This is based on php.net example 1689

          I'm taking multiple names to make separate record entries in my db....

          
// connect to db
require("auth/DBConnect.php");
mysql_connect ("$db_host", "$db_user", "$db_pwd") or die ('I cannot connect to the database.');
mysql_select_db("$db_db") or die("Wrong DB<br>");

// define each variable
$person = $_POST['persons'];

// set counter to zero
$i = 0;

// split the phrase by any number of commas or space characters,
// which include " ", \r, \t, \n and \f
$keys = preg_split("/[\s,]+/", "$person");

$num = count($keys);

while($i < $num) {

    echo $keys[$i].'<br>';
    $name = $keys[$i];
    $queryPERS = "INSERT INTO add_persons (PerIndex, person_id) VALUES ('', '$name')";
    mysql_query($queryPERS)  or die ("Error in queryPERS: $queryPERS. " . mysql_error());
    $i++;

    }
            Write a Reply...