looping through a database table

dariuc

i have a database table set up in the following way:

owner: person who is using the entry on this line
slot1: an empty slot
slot2: another empty slow

on done to
slot30:

what i am trying to accomplish is...

I'd like to add a word into an empty slot. I would need to loop through the database to first find a value that says "empty" (which is the default)

I'm at a loss where to begin implementing it.

my code:

$yada="A Sea Slug";
/* here is the blank code i need to fill in */

$putintoDB="INSERT '$yada' INTO `dabadoo` WHERE `name`='Fred'";

any help appreciated

Weedpacket

Fix your design. That is a really really really bad way to do what you're doing: you've already got one problem and believe me it will only be your first.

What you want are two more tables. One to hold the words and an ID, the other to hold a pair of IDs, one from this new table and the one from your original.

This is the first step in so-called database normalisation.

dariuc

Weedpacket;10935051 wrote:
What you want are two more tables. One to hold the words and an ID, the other to hold a pair of IDs, one from this new table and the one from your original.

that table(the one i'm talking about) is the one to hold the words and IDs.

all that table is , is a reference point.
think of it as a backpack.

in which you can fit thirty items. the name of the items aren't important. just that you need to fit them in an empty spot within the back pack.
i have many tables and more than one to accomplish my goal.

maybe you didn't understand what i was asking becuz i already have the tables you mentioned.

a character table. from that character table the name is the ID.hold all the info about a character.

a skills table. from that table the SKILL name is an ID. this table holds all the info about a skill

and a skill inventory that uses the character name to find the correct entry. And then lists all of the skills by name. this list is updated when your character gains a new skill.

of those three tables the skill inventory would be the one i have a question with and the only reason i have a question with it is because i have 30 slots.

basically all i would like to know is what i originally asked.

how do i insert new info into a table without specifying which values to update. Or more precisely i want to update the FIRST empty value that i come to in the least amount of work.

Weedpacket

It's still a bad design, and the problem you're still having is still one reason why. And no, you don't have the third table that I described, which would have two columns: one for a character ID and one for a skill ID.

johanafm

I believe your point of confusion is that you do have three tables, but the one you're talking about is not created the way it should be, as Weedpacket describes. Replace your "backpack" with a table holding no more than character id and skill id. Primary key for this table is (character_id, skill_id), foreign keys are the respective ids referencing their respective counterpart tables.
Also, you may want to add an integer id to your character and skill tables since indexing integers is more efficient than indexing strings, and they will take up less space as well.

dariuc

Weedpacket;10935055 wrote:
It's still a bad design, and the problem you're still having is still one reason why. And no, you don't have the third table that I described, which would have two columns: one for a character ID and one for a skill ID.

you know everytime i read any post from you to me it's filled with animosity more than help.

you haven't explained jack **** about what i need to know to fix my problem and you pretty much attack instead of imformm. if you really hate answering messages on a message board that much... just don't.

as far as im concerned i dont want and need your help especially with all the apparent "attitude" i have to deal with and then on top of that i still didn't understand a words worth of what you said. because your too busy *****ing about pointless stupid stuff.

i've been working on this project off and on for 7 months in my spare time. if it's going to be a hassle to ask a question politely and get a polite and well structured answer i simply won't post here anymore. or you can just take any advice you have for me and save it for someone else and simply just not answer my posts.

k thanks.

laserlight

dariuc wrote:
how do i insert new info into a table without specifying which values to update. Or more precisely i want to update the FIRST empty value that i come to in the least amount of work.

The point is, life will be simpler if you just added new rows to the table instead of trying to figure out which row should be updated as it is the first "blank" row. You would then enforce the maximum of 30 at application level, perhaps with a check constraint to ensure that it is enforced in the database as well.

Weedpacket

dariuc wrote:
if it's going to be a hassle to ask a question politely and get a polite and well structured answer i simply won't post here anymore.

That's a bit rich coming from someone who doesn't start sentences with a capital letter.

If you redesigned the database in the way that johanafm and I have described (I also gave a search term to allow you to find out more about the process), then your problem would vanish. Relational database theory is forty years old and has already solved it for you.

djjjozsi

your problem is very similar when somebody wanted to store comma delimitered values in a field. You cannot handle the values without hardcoding functions to reach them. If you need to make a simple search for non empty slots, your SQL query would be too long without keywords. You cannot filter duplications in easy ways.

If you are interested in a better design just tell us.

before you add new word, select by userid , select the words inside, build a new update query which removes the holes.