Using Explode...

smurl

OK, I have a table called "fanlistings"

I then have fields
FanlistingID
FanlistingName etc.
SpecialFieldName
SpecialFieldOptions

The two I am concentrating on are SpecialFieldName and SpecialFieldOptions.
SpecialFieldName is what the drop down box will be called.
i.e.

<select name="<?=$Settings[SpecialFieldName];?>">

OK an example of the data in the two fields would be:
SpecialFieldName = grapes_type
SpecialFieldOptions = White,Purple,Both

What I need to do, using explode is to then turn each SpecialFieldOption seperated by a "," into an option in the drop down box.

So I get that you do this:

$SelectSettings = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM OwnedFanlistings WHERE FanlistingID='$FanlistingID'");
$Setting = mysql_fetch_array($SelectSettings);

echo("<select name='$Setting[SpecialFieldName]'>
<option value='Select an option' selected='selected'>");

$SpecialFields=$Setting[SpecialFieldOptions];
$SpecialField = explode( "," , $SpecialFields);

echo("</select>");

OK so I got that far... Now I have no idea how to turn the exploded bits into options in the selection box.
Would appreciate some help pleeeeeeeease!

smurl

Sorry to spam, I figured it out myself.


foreach ($SpecialFields as $SpecialField) {

	echo("<option value='$SpecialField'>$SpecialField</option>");

}

echo("</select>"); 

?>

Weedpacket

That's not spam. That's good!

smurl

Thank you :-)
I have another small problem though...

Basically, I am making an "edit fan" page.
So I need the edit form to display their details to edit.
Now, not every fanlisting has a special field. So what I'm doing is, if the fanlisting has a special field, making it display the option choices for the special field and have the one that the fan has selected, selected in the drop down box.

$check = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM ".FANATIC_SelectTable($FanlistingID)." WHERE FanID='$FanID'");
$num = mysql_num_rows($check);

if ($num == "0") {
// fan not found
FANATIC_Error("0",$check);
}
else {
// display edit form
$faninfo = mysql_fetch_array($check);

// this bit is where the edit form is but there's no point in posting all that
// this is where the special field starts
$SelectFL = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM FANATIC_OwnedListings WHERE FanlistingID='$FanlistingID'"); 
$FL = mysql_fetch_array($SelectFL); 

	if ($FL[FanlistingSpecialField]) {

	echo("<tr valign='top'>
	<td align='left' valign='top' bgcolor='#D1BABA'><div 			align='right'><strong>SPECIAL 
	FIELD:<br />
	</strong><font size='1'>Fan special field 				reply</font></div></td><td valign='middle' 				bgcolor='#E3D5D5'><div align='center'><select name='$FL			[FanlistingSpecialField]'> 
	<option value='Select an option'>Select an 				option</option>"); 

$SpecialFields = explode( "," , $FL[SpecialFieldOptions]); 

foreach ($SpecialFields as $SpecialField) {

	if ($SpecialField == $faninfo[SpecialField]) {
	$selected_option="selected=\"selected\"";
	}
	else {
	}

	echo("<option value='$SpecialField'");
	echo(" $selected_option");
	echo(">$SpecialField</option>");
}

echo("</select></div></td></tr>");
		  }
		  else {
		  echo("");
		  }

Now it all works fine... the only thing that won't work is the option that the fan has selected in the database gets selected in the drop down box.

I have worked it out as the variables from outside of the foreach loop must not be globalised... so I tried

global $faninfo;

But alas, still no joy.

Anyone got any idea how I can make the $faninfo variable usable in the foreach loop?

Thanks in advance

Weedpacket

This line

$SpecialFields = explode( "," , $FL[SpecialFieldOptions]);

suggests that you need to rethink your database design a bit, to include an additional table (Google for "database normalization" for details).

$faninfo will already be visible inside the foreach() loop (a local variable's scope covers the entire function).

One thing that will no doubt be necessary:

if ($SpecialField == $faninfo['SpecialField']) { // $foo[bar] is bad. Quote associative array indices
        $selected_option="selected=\"selected\"";
        }
        else {
        $selected_option="";
        }

Otherwise once $selected_option is set to "selected=\"selected\", there's nothing to reset it to blank (plus it means that $selected_option has a value every time you try to use it. Always develop with error_reporting set to E_ALL to catch mistakes like this).

Are $FanID and $FanlistingID set? If they're coming from a form, then you should be using $GET['FanID'] or $POST['FanID'] depending on how the form was submitted (and you should turn register_globals off as it is a significant security risk).

The name attribute of the <select> tag should be just name="FL[FanlistingSpecialField]" - the $ is not necessary.

What exactly is $faninfo? Where does it come from, what is its value? Presumably it's one of the things that might be in the $SpecialFields array.

scrupul0us

use an enum field type in your SQL design for your "specialfield"... this allows to you constrain values within a defined list

smurl

Weedpacket wrote:
This line
$SpecialFields = explode( "," , $FL[SpecialFieldOptions]); 
suggests that you need to rethink your database design a bit, to include an additional table (Google for "database normalization" for details).

Why's that? I have a table "FANATIC_OwnedListings" with the structure:
FanlistingID (id)
FanlistingTitle (name)
FanlistingSubject (category of fanlisting)
FanlistingStatus (running (1), pending approval(2), upcoming(3) - values 1,2,3)
FanlistingDate (date opened)
FanlistingSpecialField (name of the select box)
SpecialFieldOptions (the options for the select box)

Why would I need a whole seperate table?

Are $FanID and $FanlistingID set?

Well there's a list of fanlistings in a table, with an edit link. So the FanlistingID and FanIDs are set through a URL.

Always develop with error_reporting set to E_ALL to catch mistakes like this).

How does one do that? :S

(and you should turn register_globals off as it is a significant security risk)

and that too? :S

What exactly is $faninfo? Where does it come from, what is its value? Presumably it's one of the things that might be in the $SpecialFields array.

$check = mysql_query("SELECT FanSpecial FROM ".FANATIC_SelectTable($FanlistingID)." WHERE FanID='$FanID'"); 
$num = mysql_num_rows($check); 

if ($num == "0") { 
// fan not found 
FANATIC_Error("0",$check); 
} 
else { 
// display edit form 
$faninfo = mysql_fetch_array($check);

$faninfo's value is a database result array.

Weedpacket

smurl wrote:
Why would I need a whole seperate table?

If you'd searched you'd've found out why 🙂 ... the whole point of relational databases is to store relations between data. Not normalising means missing that point and losing out on much of the DBMS's functionality.

smurl wrote:
How does one do that?

Via the [man]configuration[/man] settings error_reporting and register_globals.

smurl wrote:
$faninfo's value is a database result array.

Ah, missed that. I do note that you're SELECTING "FanSpecial", but trying to look at "SpecialField". I also see now that you have an entire table for every distinct FanlistingID. Does that mean every time a new FanlistingID is created you create a whole new table? That's just as bad for normalisation (but in the entirely opposite way).

This hasn't had any fixes; I just based it on your code to see if I'm understanding what you're doing:

$check = mysql_query("SELECT FanSpecial FROM ".FANATIC_SelectTable($FanlistingID)." WHERE FanID='$FanID'");
if(mysql_num_rows($check)==0)
{
	FANATIC_Error(0, $check);
}
else
{
	$faninfo = mysql_fetch_array($check);
	//....nothing happens to $faninfo here to mangle it?
	$selectFL = mysql_query("Select FanlistingSpecialField, SpecialFieldOptions from FANATIC_OwnedListings where FanlistingID=$FanlistingID");
	$fl = mysql_fetch_array($selectFL);
	if($fl['FanlistingSpecialField']!="")
	{
		echo '<select name="'.$fl['FanlistingSpecialField'].'">';
		$SpecialFieldOptionss = explode(',', $FL['SpecialFieldOptions']);
		foreach($SpecialFieldOptions as $SpecialFieldOption)
		{
			echo '<option value="'.$SpecialFieldOption.'">';
			if($SpecialFieldOption==$faninfo['FanSpecial']) echo 'selected="selected"';
			echo '</option>';
		}
		echo '</select>';
	}
}

Oh, and pet peeve #198: <font> tags. So last millennium....CSS is nearly ten years old, now; who needs to use <font> tags (and a table) to style their forms?