Storing Arrays in MySQL

[Anon]

I need to store an array in MySQL so that it is searchable ie. "SELECT * FROM tblTest where test_array = '1' or test_array = '2'".

Is this possible?
Any Ideas?

Johan Hanekom
[e-mail]

[badman]

it would be helpful if you can give an idea about what you want to accomplish.

maybe i or anyone can give you a better alternative.

regards,

[Anon]

I've got 1 to N amount of tick boxes which the users is allowed to select from. So I need to store that data in my database so that I can use it later on. I'm just want to know if their is a why to store a array in a database without use a select(relationship) table.

Regards,
Johan Hanekom
[e-mail]

[rsterbin]

Sure, just use explode() and implode().

Make the column a VARCHAR or TEXT (depending on how many characters you think you'll need). In your HTML set the name to "array[]" and the value to something you're certain will be unique. Then:

$string = implode(", ", $array);
$query = "INSERT INTO table (array) VALUES ('$string')";

And when you need to use it again:
$array = explode(", ", $string);

You can search the column with:
SELECT array FROM table WHERE array LIKE "somevalue" AND WHERE array LIKE "someothervalue" etc etc etc...

And if for some reason you want to seperate them with | or # or FFQQ^%, or anything else that makes you happy*, just use that as the first argument of explode() and implode().

Hope it helps,

Reha

*I'm not sure about the behavior of LIKE with these; you may want to use REGEX instead if you're planning to seperate it with something not found in regular English.