Help adding commas to concatenated array

sks1024

I have a script that pulls data from 5 fields and concatenates them into and array.

I want to be able to separate each field with a comma but I am having a hard time.

I can get it to print all 5 fields fine but would I use implode somewhere to add the commas?

$Link = mysql_connect ($Host, $User, $Password) or die ("The database connection could not be established!");
$query = "SELECT CONCAT(pic1,pic2,pic3,pic4,pic5) as all_columns FROM test WHERE id = 2";

$result = mysql_db_query ($DBName, $query, $Link);

$x =  mysql_fetch_assoc($result);


print_r($x['all_columns']);

jkurrle

Why are you concatenating them in the query? Why not just implode() them after it pulls the data?

$Link = mysql_connect ($Host, $User, $Password) 
  or die ("The database connection could not be established!"); 
$query = "SELECT pic1,pic2,pic3,pic4,pic5 
              FROM test 
              WHERE id = 2"; 

$result = mysql_db_query ($DBName, $query, $Link); 

$x =  mysql_fetch_assoc($result); 

extract($x);

$picArray=array($pic1,$pic2,$pic3,$pic4,$pic5);
$concat=implode(",",$picArray);

sks1024

That worked great. Thanks so much.

sks1024

How would I loop through the table to do this to all records.

bradgrafelman

Why wouldn't you concatenate them in the query if that's what you want? Why SELECT data that isn't the data that you actually want?

To that end, note that MySQL does have an implode-like function that can add a separator character: CONCAT_WS() (the _WS is "with separator").

However, note that a better solution would probably be to normalize your DB schema to remove the repeating columns.

sks1024

Thats what I am trying to do. Take all of the "pic" fields. Put all of these in 1 field separated by commas.

Trying to loop through the whole table and select these fields and do what i described above to remove repeating columns.

bradgrafelman

But that's still violating the First Normal Form. In fact, I would say it's even worse to do that than to have the repeating columns.

EDIT: And even if that is what you were trying to do (for whatever reason...?!), why would you want to first SELECT the data? Why not simply skip straight to UPDATE'ing the table?

sks1024

Well how would you do it?

Weedpacket

Another table with two columns. The first column has an id from the "test" table, and the second column as a value from one of those "pic" columns. This new table lists which pics are associated with which "test" rows.

Look up "First Normal Form" for details.