Reorder Array by another

[EricTRocks]

Here's the scoop,

I have a survey system I am writing. I have a database with a table "questions" that contains 2 fields on with the name of the question and one with the answers (there are multiple answers for each question).

I seperate the answers by a custom tag "<znxt>" and explode the answer from the database to display it correctly.

I am at the point where I need to edit the order of the questions. I pull the answers from the database, explode it, and output a text field with a number value (the order) and then each answer in a text field beside it. Using an array I have the name of the 'reorder' field set as "reorder[1]" and accordingly the 'answer' field as "answer[1]". Now when someone changes the number in the reorder field and hits a button it sends them to a new page/script to reorder them.

I get the output I want, however, it is not in the right order... Here is what I have for the form page:

// Find the questiosn with the defined Unique ID in url
	$getqquery = "SELECT * FROM questions WHERE quid = '$findq'";
	$getqresult = mysql_query ($getqquery);

if (mysql_num_rows($getqresult) > 0 )
{
	while ($getqr = mysql_fetch_array($getqresult))
	{
		$category = $getqr['category'];
		$questionname = $getqr['questionname'];
		$type = $getqr['type'];
		$sid = $getqr['sid'];
		$quid = $getqr['quid'];

		echo "<b>$questionname</b> - $type<br><br>\n";

		// Find the answers for this question already in database.
		$pullquery = "SELECT answers FROM questions WHERE quid = '$findq' AND answers !=''";
		$pullresult = mysql_query ($pullquery);



		if (mysql_num_rows($pullresult) > 0 )
		{
		echo "<form enctype='multipart/form-data' action='$phpself' method='post'>\n";
			while ($pullv = mysql_fetch_array($pullresult))
			{
				$pullanswers = $pullv['answers'];
				$pullanswers = explode('<znxt>',$pullanswers);

				$countanswers = count($pullanswers);

				for ( $i = 1; $i <= $countanswers; $i++)
				{
					$iindex = $i-1;
					echo "<div style='margin-bottom: 5px;'>\n<input name='reordervalue[$i]' type='text' value='$i' size='1'>";
					echo "&nbsp;\n<input name='answer[$i]' type='text' value='$pullanswers[$iindex]' readonly='true'>";
					echo "&nbsp;\n[ <a href='#'>Delete</a> ]\n</div>\n\n";
				}						
			}
			echo "<br><input type='hidden' name='quid' value='$quid'><input name='reorder' type='submit' value='Re Order'></form><br><br>\n\n";
		}

echo "<form enctype='multipart/form-data' action='define_answers.php' method='post'>\n
<input type='hidden' name='quid' value='$quid'>
Insert each answer 1 at a time:<br><input name='options' type='text'>
<br>
<input type='submit' name='submit' value='Submit'>
</form><br><br><a href='view_surveys.php'>View Surveys</a>";

	}

And to process it right now this is what I have:

$reordervalue = $_POST['reordervalue'];
$answer = $_POST['answer'];

for ( $i = 1; $i <= count($answer); $i++ )
{
	echo "$reordervalue[$i] - $answer[$i]<br>";
}

I need to know how to display or print them in the right order starting from 1-whatever. Right now they print 3,1,2 or whatnot.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Eric T

[devinemke]

i suggest you re-examine your data structure. storing a delimited array in a string field is really bad design. you should consider storing all of the answers in a separate table using the primary key field from the questions table to relate them. you could then have an integer field in the answers table that stores the order and it would be a simple matter of using an ORDER BY clause in your select query.