How to export table in html to database using php? - php

Question

I am trying to export a full table into SQL using data from an HTML table. I know how to export one row, but can't understand how to export multiple rows. Any advice?
<?php while ($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) :?>
<tr>
<form action="insertorder.php" method="post">
<td name="Item_ID[]"><?=$row["item_id"]?></td>
<td name="name[]"><?=$row["ITEM_NAME"]?></td>
<td name="suggested_qty"><?=$row["suggested_qty"]?></td>
<td name="price" class="pricetd"><?=$row["Price_item"]?></td>
<td>
<input type="text" name="editedvalues[]" class="qtyinput" value="<?=$row["suggested_qty"]?>" />
</td>
<td><input name='result[]' class="resultinput" /></td>
</tr>
<?php endwhile?>
<input type="submit" class="btn btn-dark" value="Submit">
</table>
</form>
Export script:
$sql = "INSERT INTO ms_order VALUES (item_id, item_name, order_quantity, total)";
for ($i=0; $i<count($_POST['Item_ID']); $i++) {
$sql .= '(\'' . $_POST['Item_ID'][$i] . '\', \'' . $_POST['name'][$i] . '\', \'' . $_POST['editedvalues'][$i] . '\', \'' . $_POST['result'][$i] . '\')';
if ($i<count($_POST['Item_ID']) - 1) {
$sql .= ',';
}
echo $sql;
}

Answer 1

The problem on your code it's that you're creating a new form for each fetched row on the while loop. By doing this, you're sending only one row whenever the form is submitted. To solve this you should place the form tag outside the while loop. Also, let me share with you a cleaner way to accomplish what you're doing:
$sql = "INSERT INTO ms_order (item_id, item_name, order_quantity, total) VALUES ";
$sql .= implode(',', array_map(function($item_id, $name, $editedvalues, $result) {
return <<<SQL
({$item_id}, {$name}, {$editedvalues}, {$result})
SQL;
}, $_POST['Item_ID'], $_POST['name'], $_POST['editedvalues'], $_POST['result']));
This is what it does:
array_map function fetchs each index of a given array, you can pass as an argument as many arrays as you wish, it will iterate over each index so you will be able to use each value to manipulate it and return it.
Each iteration of the array_map will create a new array, so in the end what you get is an array of arrays containing the returned results. Finally, as you want to make a multiple INSERT, you concatenate each array with a colon using the implode function.
Note that you should sanitize the $_POST values as you might be vulnerable to SQL Injection and other security issues. For further information about it, check it out here.
Greetings,
Matt