Insert into table with user input

Question

This may have an easy solution but i'm stumped here. As you can see below, I want an employee to be able to request as much as 6 different items in one form. The problem for me is, how to store 6 possible values for (Item Number, Ited Description, Qty Requested and Request Purpose) in their respective columns? I could use array but that will just make it more complicated.

This is my table description:

+--------------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Field              | Type         | Null | Key | Default | Extra          |
+--------------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
| Request_Number     | int(11)      | NO   | PRI | NULL    | auto_increment |
| Request_Date       | date         | NO   |     | NULL    |                |
| Department         | varchar(30)  | NO   |     | NULL    |                |
| Email              | varchar(80)  | NO   |     | NULL    |                |
| Item_Number        | int(11)      | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
| Item_Description   | varchar(250) | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
| Quantity_Requested | varchar(20)  | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
| Request_Purpose    | varchar(255) | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
| Sub_Dept_Head      | varchar(50)  | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
| Dept_Head          | varchar(50)  | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
| Admin_Dept         | varchar(50)  | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
| Approved_By        | varchar(50)  | YES  |     | NULL    |                |
+--------------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+

This is the form:

    
      
        
          Personal Detail:
        
        
          Request Date:
          
            
          
          Department
          
            
          
        
        
          Requested By:
          
            
          
          E-Mail:
          
            
          
        
      
      
    
      Requisition Detail:
    
    
      Item Number
      Item Description
      Quantity Requested
      Request Purpose
    
    
      
        
      
      
        
      
      
        
      
      
        
        
    
    
      
      
      
      
    
    
      
      
      
      
    
    
      
      
      
      
    
    
      
      
      
      
    
    
      
      
      
      
    
  

      
        
          Recommendations:
        
        
          Sub-Department Head
          Department Head
          Administration
          Approved by

David Jones · Accepted Answer

You should be using an array to capture the input values. You need to change each row with the inputs to this:

Now in your PHP you can simply loop through and grab each item per row.

$c = count($_POST['item_number']);
for ($i = 0; $i < $c; $i++) {
    $item_number = $_POST['item_number'][$i];
    $item_description= $_POST['item_description'][$i];
    $qty_requested= $_POST['qty_requested'][$i];
    $request_purpose= $_POST['request_purpose'][$i];

    // Enter to database or whatever
}

But this will still not work as your database is not set up correctly. You need to have a separate table for the items then set up a one to many relationship with the requests.

If you cant change your database structure for whatever reason then you will need to serialize each array then enter the serialized string into the database. For example:

$item_number = serialize($_POST['item_number']);
$item_description= serialize($_POST['item_description']);
$qty_requested= serialize($_POST['qty_requested']);
$request_purpose= serialize($_POST['request_purpose']);

Hope that helps :)

Insert into table with user input

Answers (1)

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