Ignoring multiple values in <select> menu using php

[blackwidow]

Hi all,

I have some code that grabs urls from a table in my database, and then displays them in a drop down menu as a basic search criteria.....However, the nature of the table dictates that a url will be entered numerous times (as its a table that stores transaction details about specific urls).

My problem lies in that the code I'm using will display the url in the drop down menu 3 times (if three entries are in the database table).

What I would ideally like would be for the url to be displayed only once in the drop down menu, but have the script return results for all urls that match the selected one when the form is posted. here is my code:

txnsearch.php

<?php require ("database.php"); ?>

<?php
$txns = @mysql_query('SELECT id, url FROM transaction');
if (!$txns) {
echo "<p>Unable to retrieve transaction details</p>";
}
?>

<form action="txn_search_results.php" method="post">
<p>Select a URL from the list</p>
<select name="tid" size="1">
<?php
while ($txn=mysql_fetch_array($txns)) {
$tid = $txn['id'];
$url = $txn['url'];
echo "<option value='$tid'>$url</option>";
}
?>
</select>
<input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit">
</form>

txn_search_results.php

<?php

if($logged_in){

$tid = $_POST['tid'];


?>
<table width="90%" border="0" class="column_right">
  <tr>
    <td class="faq">Date</td>
    <td class="faq">Amount</td>
    <td class="faq">Transaction ID</td>
    <td class="faq">Senders Email</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td colspan="5" class="faq"><hr size="1" /></td>
    </tr>

<?php $txns=@mysql_query("SELECT DISTINCT id, url, date, amount, txnid, sendersemail FROM transaction WHERE id=$tid");
if (!$txns) {
echo "Unable to perform search";
}

while ($txn=mysql_fetch_array($txns)) {
echo "<tr>";
$tid = $txn['id'];
$date = $txn['date'];
$amount = $txn['amount'];
$txnid = $txn['txnid'];
$sendersemail = $txn['sendersemail'];
echo "<td class=\"box_text\">$date</td>
    <td class=\"box_text\">$amount</td>
    <td class=\"box_text\">$txnid</td>
    <td class=\"box_text\">$sendersemail</td>
  </tr>";
  }
  ?>
</table>

<p><a href="index.php">New Search</a></p>
<?php

}

else{
   displayLogin();
}
?>

Any help greatfully appreciated. This is a script that I've written from the ground upwards, as I'm getting much more involved with php now, so also any pointers about 'best practices' etc would great! 🙂

Many thanks in advance

Mark

[reddrum]

I had a similar problem and wrote this function to remove dup string values from an array.

function del_dups($dupArray){
      $newArray = $dupArray;
      foreach($dupArray as $tmp){
        $intCount = 0;
        $i = 0;
        foreach($newArray as $tmp2){
           if($tmp == $tmp2)
              ++$intCount;
           if($intCount >  1){
             unset($newArray[$i]);
             $intCount = 1;
           }
           ++$i;
        }

  }
  return  $newArray;
}
$oldArray = del_dups($oldArray);
 

[reddrum]

Sorry blackwidow, I now rember, that function did not solve my problem, I was able to make a new table to remove the dup values, not an option for you. The function almost works but not quite. Maybe you can get it to fly.
All my post should come with a warning!
Good luck!

[blackwidow]

Hi Redrum,

Not a problem, I was wondering why I couldnt get it to work, no matter what combination I used, I just couldnt quite get it! Oh well, I can always revert back to a simple textbox and input the url manually.

Thanks for your help though, its made me realise that a function is probably the way to go, I'm just hopeless at doing them!

Once again, cheers, you've been a big help afterall!

Mark

[blackwidow]

I've now solved the problem.....probably not by the conventional method, and it wont work for everyone. But here is my setup and an explanation:

I have 2 tables in my database - 1 called 'projects' where each entry is a unique url, and 1 called 'transactions' where there could be multiple entries with the same url (just different transaction details.

What the code below does, is grab the data from the 'projects' table to display in the drop down menu (as there are no dup entries, and never will be), and then displays the results on the results page by referencing the posted url to the transactions table.

menu option:

<?php require ("databse.php"); ?>

<?php
$txns = @mysql_query('SELECT id, url FROM projects');
if (!$txns) {
echo "<p>Unable to retrieve project list</p>";
}
?>

<form action="txn_search_results.php" method="post">
  <select name="url" size="1">
<?php
while ($txn=mysql_fetch_array($txns)) {
$tid = $txn['id'];
$url = $txn['url'];
echo "<option value='$url'>$url</option>";
}
?>
</select>
<input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Search Transactions">
</form>

results:

<?php
session_start();
require ("database.php");
require ("login.php");
?>

<?php

if($logged_in){
$tid = $_POST['tid'];
$purl = $_POST['url'];


?>
<table width="90%" border="0" class="column_right">
  <tr>
    <td class="faq">Date</td>
    <td class="faq">Amount</td>
    <td class="faq">Transaction ID</td>
    <td class="faq">Senders Email</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td colspan="5" class="faq"><hr size="1" /></td>
    </tr>

<?php
$purl = $_POST['url'];
$txns=@mysql_query("SELECT id, url, date, amount, txnid, sendersemail FROM transaction WHERE url='$purl'") or die(mysql_error()); 
if (!$txns) {
echo "Unable to perform search";
}

while ($txn=mysql_fetch_array($txns)) {
echo "<tr>";
$tid = $txn['id'];
$url = $txn['url'];
$date = $txn['date'];
$amount = $txn['amount'];
$txnid = $txn['txnid'];
$sendersemail = $txn['sendersemail'];
echo "<td class=\"box_text\">$date</td>
    <td class=\"box_text\">$amount</td>
    <td class=\"box_text\">$txnid</td>
    <td class=\"box_text\">$sendersemail</td>
  </tr>";
  }
  ?>
</table>

<p><a href="index.php">New Search</a></p>
<?php

}

else{
   displayLogin();
}
?>