[RESOLVED] Assign code to variable

Brent5555

I'm trying to assign a bit of PHP code to a variable. But when I try and get the variable to run as PHP I can't get it to work.

In short here's what I need

$value = FirstName;
$q = "'";
$excel_string = '$row_members['.$q.$value.$q.']';
$row_members['FirstName'] = Sam;

echo "$excel_string"; // dipslays as $row_members['FirstName'] not Sam

I would like the $excel_string parsed by PHP, but can't get it to work. I realize there are a million other ways to do the above but I need help with the actual variable written as $row_members['FirstName'] as the actual code is below and the above is just an easy explanation.

Here's the actual code

// find all the fields we want to select from database
$field = $_POST['all_data']; // get the data from dp_mailing.php "ALL" form
foreach ($field as $value) {
$query_string.= $value.",";// build a string to insert into SELECT statement
$q = "'";
$excel_string.= '$row_members['.$q.$value.$q.']."\t".'; //build a string to use for excel document
} 

$str = substr($query_string, 0, -1); // remove the last comma from query_string
$excelstr = substr($excel_string, 0, -4); // remove the TAB characters from excel string "\t"
$excelstr = $excelstr.'\n."'; // add line break at end of excel string "\n"


mysql_select_db($database_Membership, $Membership);
$query_members = "SELECT ".$str." FROM members";
$members = mysql_query($query_members, $Membership) or die(mysql_error());
$row_members = mysql_fetch_assoc($members);
$totalRows_members = mysql_num_rows($members);


 # file name for download
  $filename = "mailing_" . date('Ymd') . ".xls";
//headers for Excel file
  header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"$filename\"");
  header("Content-Type: application/vnd.ms-excel");


   do {
 $excelstr ; 
     } while ($row_members = mysql_fetch_assoc($members));

I wanted the $excelstr variable to be a chunk of PHP code. It might look like

$row_members['FirstName']."\t".$row_members['LastName']."\t".$row_members['Company']."\t"

But I won't know the exact variables until I get the data out of the database and I'm creating the $excelstr variable beforehand. So I was looking for a way to convert the $excelstr variable

If I write in

do {

echo $row_members['MemberID']."\t".$row_members['FirstName']."\t".$row_members['LastName']."\t".$row_members['Company']."\t".$row_members['Address']."\t".$row_members['City']."\t".$row_members['State']."\t".$row_members['PostalCode']."\t".$row_members['EmailAddress']."\t".$row_members['PhoneNumber']."\n"; 
     } while ($row_members = mysql_fetch_assoc($members));

at the end of the code it works fine. And if I echo $excelstr string it also "looks" like

do {

echo $row_members['MemberID']."\t".$row_members['FirstName']."\t".$row_members['LastName']."\t".$row_members['Company']."\t".$row_members['Address']."\t".$row_members['City']."\t".$row_members['State']."\t".$row_members['PostalCode']."\t".$row_members['EmailAddress']."\t".$row_members['PhoneNumber']."\n"; 
     } while ($row_members = mysql_fetch_assoc($members));

But will not parse (if that's the right word) by PHP.

Hope that makes sense.

planetsim

Im struggling to understand what the issue is ? What variable wont parse ? What error(s) are you getting ?

Without knowing much about the issue at hand its hard to diagnose the problem.

My first thought that is that the top part of the code could be improved a lot.

Im assuming this code below is meant to create a comma separated values (CSV) for the excel file each new record will need a new line obviously

$field = $_POST['all_data']; // get the data from dp_mailing.php "ALL" form
foreach ($field as $value) {
$query_string.= $value.",";// build a string to insert into SELECT statement
$q = "'";
$excel_string.= '$row_members['.$q.$value.$q.']."\t".'; //build a string to use for excel document
}

$str = substr($query_string, 0, -1); // remove the last comma from query_string
$excelstr = substr($excel_string, 0, -4); // remove the TAB characters from excel string "\t"
$excelstr = $excelstr.'\n."'; // add line break at end of excel string "\n"

If what I am saying is right than your doing a lot of needless work for no reward.

Im having issues understanding what this is doing

$excel_string.= '$row_members['.$q.$value.$q.']."\t".'; //build a string to use for excel document

Whats the purpose of $q.$value.$q ? Could it not be better achieved like this. Also where is $row_members being setup ?

$excel_string .= $row_members[$value];

Here is a simplified version of that above code but Im not sure if it will do what your wanting it to do.

$field = $_POST['all_data']; // get the data from dp_mailing.php "ALL" form

$query_string = array();
$excel_string = array();
foreach ($field as $value) 
{
    $query_string [] = $value;
    $excel_string[] = $row_members[$value]
}

$query_string = join( ",", $query_string );
$excel_string = join( "\t", $excel_string );

Brent5555

Sorry I'm having a hard time explaining.

I have a form in which I can select the fields in my database. (I will send the data to an Excel doc.)

<form action="db_all.php" method="post" name="getall">     

<select name="all_data[]" size="10" multiple="multiple">
<option value="MemberID" selected="selected">MemberID</option>
<option value="FirstName" selected="selected">FirstName</option>
<option value="LastName" selected="selected">LastName</option>
<option value="Company" selected="selected">Company</option>
<option value="Address" selected="selected">Address</option>
<option value="City" selected="selected">City</option>
<option value="State" selected="selected">State</option>
<option value="PostalCode" selected="selected">PostalCode</option>
<option value="EmailAddress" selected="selected">EmailAddress</option>
<option value="PhoneNumber" selected="selected">PhoneNumber</option>
<option value="MemberInterest" selected="selected">MemberInterest</option>
<option value="SockSize" selected="selected">SockSize</option>
<option value="MemberTypeID" selected="selected">MemberTypeID</option>
<option value="JoinDate" selected="selected">JoinDate</option>
<option value="RenewalDate" selected="selected">RenewalDate</option>
<option value="LastPayment" selected="selected">LastPayment</option>
<option value="ModifyDate" selected="selected">ModifyDate</option>
</select>

<input type="submit" name="button4" id="button4" value="Submit" />

 </form>

I select which fields I want and then build a SELECT statement

$field = $_POST['all_data']; // get the fields from form
foreach ($field as $value) {
$query_string.= $value.",";// build a string to insert into SELECT statement

So I end up with the fields I'm going to select from the database - for example my $query_string might be FirstName, LastName, PhoneNumber,

and I strip off the last comma.

$str = substr($query_string, 0, -1); // remove the last comma from query_string

and then plug $query_string into my SELECT statement and pull the info from the database

mysql_select_db($database_Membership, $Membership);
$query_members = "SELECT ".$str." FROM members";
$members = mysql_query($query_members, $Membership) or die(mysql_error());
$row_members = mysql_fetch_assoc($members);
$totalRows_members = mysql_num_rows($members);

So now I have the variables (for each person in the database).
$row_members['FirstName']
$row_members['LastName']
$row_members['PhoneNumber']

I'm ready to send it off to my Excel Doc. So I create the Excel doc

# file name for download
  $filename = "mailing_" . date('Ymd') . ".xls";
//headers for Excel file
  header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"$filename\"");
  header("Content-Type: application/vnd.ms-excel");

and now need to add the data to the Excel doc - in this case FirstName, LastName, PhoneNumber.

This code would work (and add the proper tabs and line breaks);

do {
  echo $row_members['FirstName']."\t".$row_members['LastName']."\t".$row_members['PhoneNumber']."\n"; 
     } 
while ($row_members = mysql_fetch_assoc($members));

Of course I need the above do while loop to contain the variables that I choose in the original form.

So my (not so bright and useful) idea was I would just build this echo command the same time I build the SELECT statement with my convoluted code of

$q = "'";
$excel_string.= '$row_members['.$q.$value.$q.']."\t".'; //build a string to use for excel document

It does. The variable $excel_string in this example would be equal to

$row_members['FirstName']."\t".$row_members['LastName']."\t".$row_members['PhoneNumber']."\n";

But when I plug $excel_string into my do while loop

do {
  echo $excel_string;
     } 
while ($row_members = mysql_fetch_assoc($members));

I don't get the data, instead I get

$row_members['FirstName']."\t".$row_members['LastName']."\t".$row_members['PhoneNumber']."\n";

I admit my code may suck, but instead of rewriting it all I was hoping there would be a command that would simple convet this $excel_string so it would actual insert the data, instead of inserting the variable names (figuring I'd done something funky to the string variable).

dagon

i haven't been through all your code you have give us alot we don't need to see but the basic problem is your using ' instead of " when building $excel_string

This page explains the quotes for strings.

http://nz.php.net/types.string

Brent5555

I'm having trouble since the variable name has quotes

$row_members['FirstName'] so keep getting syntax errors when using "

(And yes I know I added a lot of extra, but planetsim said he didn't understand what I was getting at, so figured I'd add it all.)

dagon

$excel_string.= $row_members[$value]."\t";

instead of

$q = "'";
$excel_string.= '$row_members['.$q.$value.$q.']."\t".'; //build a string to use for excel document

dagon

a slightly more educational example

<?
$row_members=array('foo','bar');
$value=1;
$q = "'";
$excel_string1.= '$row_members['.$q.$value.$q.']."\t".'; 

$excel_string2.= $row_members[$value]."\t";

echo $excel_string1;

echo $excel_string2;

X-Powered-By: PHP/5.2.5

$excel_string1=
$row_members['1']."\t"

$excel_string2=
bar

Brent5555

Thanks dagon, With

$excel_string.= $row_members[$value]."\t";

I just get the first value in the array (as doesn't the variable need to be $row_value['$value']? and where I get mesed up with the ')

and with

$excel_string1.= '$row_members['.$q.$value.$q.']."\t".';

I once again get $row_members['Firstname']."\t" (or similar) and not the actual variable value.

dagon

Brent5555;10897662 wrote:
Thanks dagon, With
$excel_string.= $row_members[$value]."\t"; 
I just get the first value in the array (as doesn't the variable need to be $row_value['$value']? and where I get mesed up with the ')

I used $row_members because you used it, there's no $row_value in your supplied code

Brent5555;10897662 wrote:
and with
$excel_string1.= '$row_members['.$q.$value.$q.']."\t".';
I once again get $row_members['Firstname']."\t" (or similar) and not the actual variable value.

becuse as stated before you want

$row_members[$value]."\t";

Brent5555

Thanks for the help dagon I finally figured it out and used the following

// find all the fields we want to select from database
$field = $_POST['all_data']; // get the data from dp_mailing.php "ALL" form
foreach ($field as $value) 
{
$query_string.= $value.",";// build a string to insert into SELECT statement
} 
$str = substr($query_string, 0, -1); // remove the last comma from query_string

mysql_select_db($database_Membership, $Membership);
$query_members = "SELECT ".$str." FROM members";
$members = mysql_query($query_members, $Membership) or die(mysql_error());
$row_members = mysql_fetch_assoc($members);
$totalRows_members = mysql_num_rows($members);

# file name for download
$filename = "BTCEB_mailing_" . date('Ymd') . ".xls";
//headers for Excel file
  header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"$filename\"");
  header("Content-Type: application/vnd.ms-excel");
//Populate Excel document with data
   do { 
   foreach ($row_members as $value)
   		{
		echo $value."\t" ;
		}
   echo "\n";
     } while ($row_members = mysql_fetch_assoc($members));

Weedpacket

If you have a string containing a valid PHP statement, then you can execute it by passing it to [man]eval[/man]. Note, however, the truism that "if eval() is the answer, then it was probably the wrong question."