[RESOLVED] for loop, mysql_fetch_array, plus 2 other arrays

ATS16805

i've been away from the basic db function stuff for a while... i couldn't think how i used to do it, and i felt the need to try to re-think this today, but why does this seem like it's too 'easy' to be working as it is? i got to it by being lazy and not wanting to set it up specifically for the static table field names (although the $db_field array uses static entry because i forget the syntax for retrieving the table-field names off hand, or i would have tried that 'automatically' too). focusing more on the peripheral code-- i wanted to blow through some basic output for testing so i was trying to minimize time spent there...

/* THIS immediately AFTER AN INSERT QUERY to verify the stuff was working right */
$entryno = mysql_insert_id();
$queryrow = "SELECT * FROM event WHERE master_id = $entryno";
$result = mysql_query($queryrow,$dblink) or die(mysql_error());
$number = mysql_num_fields($result);	
$db_row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
$db_field = array('master_id','editing','calendar','event','room','detail');
for($htmloop=0;$htmloop<=($number-1);$htmloop++){
	$db_field[$htmloop] = $db_row[$htmloop];
}

the result allowed me to just plug the $db_field[key] where i needed it.

does anyone see any inherent crashability here? i feel like i've eliminated some code by doing this way-- and possibily opened up some dynamic possibilities.

i don't doubt that similar code is standard practice. but i'm used to doing it more like typing out each $field_name = $db_field['field_name']; $fieldname_two = $db_field['fieldname_two'] etc-- in sort of a neat, line by line 'vertical chunk' for pulling all of the row fields-- a process i always thought as tedious and not much fun

just looking for feedback. any other shortcuts i might want to check out, or articles on stuff like this that you might know of? (ie. "how to do with instead of ___... ") not that there's much more to be done w/ basic stuff like this...
thanks!!

Jasp182

there are a ton of array functions in php that do this work for you. the [man]array[/man] page lists all of them. instead of doing a for loop, you can probably just pass the array to a built-in function that will do the work for you.

also, if you need access to the keys and values of an array, i always prefer to use

foreach($array as $key=>$value)
{
    ...
}

this just iterates through the array without you having to set variables for counting the elements or anything like that. in each iteration, $key is the current key and $value is the value of $array[$key].

NogDog

Probably the most-used method of reading the rows returned by a MySQL query is:

$result = mysql_query($queryrow,$dblink) or die(mysql_error());
while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{
   // $row is an array of values for the next result row, with column names as indexes
}

ATS16805

dig. i see what y'all are saying... thanks for that info!! 🙂
so-- in retrospect, it looks like i really made it more difficult on myself by hashing all of this out so methodically-- maybe had something to do w/ preparing for what would be coming after this, but probably more a matter of forgetting the conventions. i had been doing a lot of stuff w/ arrays, foreach vs for and while, etc

i think i was originally looking for the way NogDog did it... and w/out refer'ing anything, that's what i came up with. (since then, i've gotten much more refreshed on everything-- ha! still probably would have forgot the simple while loop like NogDog showed...
(it may be worth nothing that there are six other tables in this db, four of which will correspond to that "room" id... i dunno... blah, blah..)

$_SESSION['event']=$_POST['event'];
$_SESSION['month']=$_POST['month'];
$_SESSION['day']=$_POST['day'];
$_SESSION['year']=$_POST['year'];
$_SESSION['room']=$_POST['room'];
$_SESSION['details']=$_POST['details'];

$calendar = $_SESSION['year'].'-'.$_SESSION['month'].'-'.$_SESSION['day'];

$eventinsert = mysql_query("INSERT INTO event(calendar,event,room,detail) VALUES ('".$calendar."','".addslashes($_POST['event'])."','".addslashes($_POST['room'])."','".addslashes($_POST['details'])."')") or die(mysql_error());

$entryno = mysql_insert_id();
$queryrow = "SELECT * FROM event WHERE master_id = $entryno";
$result = mysql_query($queryrow,$dblink) or die(mysql_error());
$number = mysql_num_fields($result);	
$db_row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
$db_fields = array('master_id','editing','calendar','event','room','detail');

for($fields_x=0;$fields_x<=($number-1);$fields_x++){
	$db_fields[$fields_x] = $db_row[$fields_x];
}

cheers, pleased to meet you, and thanks again! 😉

EDIT: PS-- if i want to grab the field names and the table name itself-- from the recent query, or any query-- how is that done (the function name)? thanks!