Populating HTML checkboxes from a database

sjslovechild

I am generating a group of check-boxes from a mySQL database with this code.

<?PHP
$connection=mysql_connect ("localhost", "adsites_seth", "callie") or die ("I cannot connect to the database.");
$db=mysql_select_db ("adsites_cerebra", $connection) or die (mysql_error());
$query = "SELECT type FROM typelist ORDER BY type ASC";
$sql_result = mysql_query($query, $connection) or die (mysql_error());
	$i=1;
	echo '<table valign="top"><tr><td>';
	while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($sql_result)) {
	$type = $row["type"];
		 if ($i > 1 && $i % 26 == 0) 
  		echo '</td><td>'; 
  		else if ($i) 
  		echo ''; 
  		++$i; 
		echo "<input style='font-size:10px;' name='type[]' type='checkbox' value='$type'><span style='color:#000;'>$type</span></input><br/>";}
echo '</td></tr></table>'; ?>

I'm parsing the array and dumping the values as comma separated text into a database with this block of code.

// dumping the type of job checkboxes

$type = $_POST['type'];
  var_dump($type);

// Setting up a blank variable to be used in the coming loop.
  $allStyles = "";

  // For every checkbox value sent to the form.
  foreach ($type as $style) {
    // Append the string with the current array element, and then add a comma and a space at the end.
    $allTypes .= $style . ", ";
  }

// Delete the last two characters from the string.
  $allTypes = substr($allTypes, 0, -2);


// end dumping the type of job checkboxes

It works great. My problem is on the edit record page. I'm generating the list as before, but this time I need to have the check boxes "checked" if that check box item had been entered into the database.

How do I alter the first block of code to do this?

Res

You will want to check the value from the field, and create the proper html for checking the check box.

So if they check the checkbox the value is one, if they didn't check it the value is 0.

//is it 1 or 0
if($type){
///if it's 1 (true) then we add 'checked' to a variable we will use in the input
//to cause it to be checked
   $checked = 'checked';
}else{
//if the value is 0 (false) we set the variable to be empty, not checked
   $checked = '';
}

//now we use this variable in the html input to make it checked or not.
echo "<input style='font-size:10px;' name='type[]' type='checkbox' value='$type' checked='$checked'>";

You will probably want a static value on the checkbox, instead of $type make it 1. Currently you have it setup so that if I didn't set type on the add (it's 0), then when i come back to update it's grabbing my previous value as the value, which will be 0. So even if i check it it will update it to 0, not 1.

This will not allow you to update the value to 0 after it has already be set to 1 however. You will need two inputs, with the same name to achieve this. One hidden, and one the check box. Basically the checkbox overwrites the hidden value when it gets checked.

<input type="hidden" value=0 name="item[0] />
<input type="checkbox" value=1 name="item[0] />

This way, if the user doesn't check the checkbox, it isn't posted, the value 0 is instead. If the checkbox is checked, it overwrites the 0 form the hidden input and posts the value 1.