php form and mysql

[darbok 1]

I was wondering when one has a php form with like 30 entries how does one organize or manage such a large list of entries to pass to mysql?

[niche 143]

The answer to your specific question is you'd use a $_GET or $_POST method.

[niche 143]

This will get you started: https://www.w3schools.com/php/php_forms.asp

[darbok 1]

On 5/11/2017 at 9:15 PM, niche said:

The answer to your specific question is you'd use a $_GET or $_POST method.

I think i explained myself wrong possibly. I understand about submitting to mysql from php... but from what iv'e seen you need to list all the columns in the sql tables that the info has to go in from the php form. I was wondering if there was some way to do this without having to list all 30 fields  that the php/sql connect statement has to post to individual.

[justsomeguy 1,135]

It's best to list the fields.  You can leave out the field list and just have the values in the insert query, but if you ever modify the table it's going to break the code.  It's always best to list out what you're doing to avoid issues like that.

[darbok 1]

On 5/15/2017 at 3:32 PM, justsomeguy said:

It's best to list the fields.  You can leave out the field list and just have the values in the insert query, but if you ever modify the table it's going to break the code.  It's always best to list out what you're doing to avoid issues like that.

So it's best to just it up and list all the fields?

[dsonesuk 929]

I suppose you can use sql 'SHOW COLUMNS' to do the listing for you http://php.net/manual/en/function.mysql-list-fields.php

[dsonesuk 929]

Rough example

 $sql = "SHOW COLUMNS FROM TableName";
        $stmt = $pdo->prepare($sql);
        $stmt->execute();

        $arr = [];

        while ($row = $stmt->fetchObject()) {

//check if column is non auto_increment
            if ($row->Extra !== 'auto_increment') {
                $arr[] = $row->Field;
            }
       
        }
        $convert_arr = implode(', ', $arr);
        
        $ins_sql = "INSERT INTO TableName ($convert_arr)VALUES (11, 4)";
        $pdo->exec($ins_sql);

You could even use column names retrieved to retrieve  $_POST/$_GET name values of the same named index.

Edited May 19, 2017 by dsonesuk

[justsomeguy 1,135]

So it's best to just it up and list all the fields?

Yep.  The alternative is to not list the columns in the table and only give the values:

INSERT INTO table VALUES ('val1', 'val2', 'val3')

But, like I said, if you ever change the structure of that table then that query is going to break if you've changed the number of columns.  It's best to just list everything out explicitly.  You don't have to pay per character in your source code, make the code as obvious as possible so that it's easy to maintain.  Ease of maintenance should always be a higher priority than something like how long the code is.