autofill dropdown box with mysql data

[adammc]

Hi folks,

I am having problems getting this to work 🙁

I have a column (var text) in my mysql database for the list of sizes available, it lists them in the format of 'red,green,blue'

I was hoping to be able to autofill the select fields in my form using something like this:

$query = mysql_query("SELECT size FROM products WHERE `id`='$id'");

echo "<select name=option1>";
while ($r = mysql_fetch_array($query))
{
$size = fgetcsv$r["size"];
echo "<option value=$size>$size</option>";
}
echo "</select>";

Of course it isnt working as the returned result is one field, with the value of red,green,blue.

I assume I need to use something like the php file read csv function:

fgetcsv

??

Or should I be storing the colors in a different format in the DB ?

[leatherback]

You certainly should be storing the colors in a different format, as you cannot do anything (e.g., search) for color this way. I suggest making a table called colors, in which you store each color, and only store the color id in the main table. Or if you need multiple colors for the main table, ytou add a main-to-colors matching table, in which you store the main table record id, and the color id, effectively creating a many-to-many relation.

If you maintain the current situation, you can use [man]explode[/man] to transform the text into an array, and use an [man]foreach[/\man] loop to create the dropdown list