[RESOLVED] arrays to arrays

clairence

I'm sure this is a pretty simple question, but it's got me baffled.

I have a mySQL column with data that's comma-delimited. Numbers only.
I want to take that data and remove those numbers from a counting list.

To be more specific:
I'm trying to automate a game we're playing.
There are 16 NFC teams, which I have stored in an array $NFC[0]...$NFC[15].
Likewise for the AFC.

Each player chooses one team per week, and cannot choose that team again for the season. So, when the player is confronted with a new selection list, the teams they've chosen should not show up as options.
I have a mySQL column for each player that stores each selected team in a comma-delimited list.

I want to remove the list items from the teams array, then display the rest.

I tried this, which obviously didnt work :

$afcpicks=array($row['AFC']);

I tried this, which doesn't make much sense but I may not have done correctly:

for ($a=0;$a<16;$a++){
for ($b=0;$b<count($afcpicks);$b++){
if ($afcpicks[$b]!=$a){
$achoices .= $a;
}
}
}

I guess I need to split the $row['AFC'], then create an array, but I'm lost on how to do that.

clairence

Bad form, I know, to respond to your own thread. But I think I got it mostly figured out. Just needed the right function.

Here's what I did:

//create array of teams already picked
$nfcpicks=explode(", ",$row['NFC']);
$afcpicks=explode(", ",$row['AFC']);

//this will remove from choices the teams already picked
$nfcdifference = array_diff($baseline, $nfcpicks);

devinemke

generally speaking, this is pretty bad data design. you should really consider storing the links between players and teams in a separate table.

clairence

I'm still learning how to use the database. If you have any suggestions, I'd like to hear.

When someone makes a choice, I put the info in several places (because I wasn't sure how I was going to use it later).

.There's a GameData table, with timestamp, player id, team ids, and week.
.There's an AFCTeams table, with player ids of those who have chosen.
(NFCTeams too)
.There's a participants table, with the wins/losses, and teams picked.

It turned out to be easiest to pull the team data from the participants table than any of the others, partly because GameData will have multiple teams should the player change his mind.

I haven't yet focused on how to remove a playerID from the Teams table, should they change their mind. If I do that, then I can pull the remaining teams from that table instead.

devinemke

you have multiple players and multiple teams. this is a classic many-to-many data relationship which has been discussed at length here. do a search on this forum and elsewhere.

clairence

The first thread I looked at was this one:
http://www.phpbuilder.com/board/showthread.php?t=10329040&highlight=many-to-many

I think I'm already pretty close. My db is laid out as follows:

participants
PlayerID
Name
Wins
AFCPicks
NFCPicks

Weeks
WeekID
date

AFCTeams
TeamID
TeamName

NFCTeams
TeamID
TeamName

GameData
RowID
PlayerID
WeekID
AFCTeamID
NFCTeamID
Date

So do I need a separate table that mirrors the GameData, but only stores the most recent selections of each player (assuming they change their mind during one or more weeks)?