How to store data from dynamically added lines with multiple inputs - php

Question

I created a form containing info about the user (doctors). Besides the default info, they now want to add opening hours from their office.
In the current form I added a form-group with 3 input elements:
select name="dayofweek[]"
input name="timeblock[]"
select name="type[]"
There is a button for the user to add an extra line with the same fields so he can create multiple opening hours (per day/timeblock).
All is stored with the submit-button from the form.
After saving my data looks like this:
"dayofweek" => ["monday", "monday", "tuesday", ...]
"timeblock" => ["10-12h", "14-18h", "10-16u", ...]
"type" => ["by appointment", "free", "free", ...]
Now I want to save these in my table with fields [ID, DayOfWeek, TimeBlock, Type].
To do so I have to rearrange the data received from the form-submit before I can save them row by row. This is how I do it now:
public static function prepareData($dayofweek = [], $timeblock = [], $type = []) {
$prepared = [];
$i = 0;
while($i < count($dayofweek)) {
$a = $dayofweek[$i];
$b = $timeblock[$i];
$c = $type[$i];
$record = ['dayofweek' => $a, 'timeblock' => $b, 'type' => $c];
array_push($prepared, $record);
$i++;
}
return $prepared;
}
To show the data on the form when editing, I have to do the inverse.
I was wondering if there is any other easier and cleaner way to do this?

Answer 1

Unfortunately, the native data type like array and string can have only one format and structure. If your use case uses the same data in different formats or different data structure, it is recommended to create a data object. A data object is an object that holds the data in its fields and has many inputs and output methods to allow to use the data in different formats and structures.
This is an OOP approach, in this case, it will make your code much cleaner and understandable and much more easy to expand or alter in the future. But note that this will not reduce the amount of code. The format conversion function is required anyway.
According to the description, we have a data object named Appointment with the data {DayOfWeek, TimeBlock, Type}. However, the input and output functions that are described referring to a list of Appointments, therefore, those functions do not belong to Appointment object. They refer to another data object, AppointmentList which contain an array of Appointments and input and output functions.
This object will look like this:
class Appointment
{
public $dayofweek;
public $timeblock;
public $type;
public function __construct($record)
{
$this->dayofweek = $record['dayofweek'];
$this->timeblock = $record['timeblock'];
$this->type = $record['type'];
}
}
class AppointmentList
{
public $appointmentArray = [];
function setData($data)
{
$prepared = [];
$i = 0;
while ($i < count($data['dayofweek'])) {
$a = $data['dayofweek'][$i];
$b = $data['timeblock'][$i];
$c = $data['type'][$i];
$record = ['dayofweek' => $a, 'timeblock' => $b, 'type' => $c];
$prepared[] = new Appointment($record);
$i++;
}
$this->appointmentArray = $prepared;
}
function getData() {
$data = ['dayofweek' => [],'timeblock' => [],'type' => []];
foreach ($this->appointmentArray as $appointment){
$data['dayofweek'][] = $appointment->dayofweek;
$data['timeblock'][] = $appointment->timeblock;
$data['type'][] = $appointment->type;
}
return $data;
}
}
Then when you receive $data from the form run:
$al = new AppointmentList();
$al->setData($data);
The you can use the array $al->appointmentArray to access the appointments one by one and store them in the table.
And afterward when you need to fill the form again simply use $al->getData()
Note that this is only an example. Usually different techniques are used to store the data object into the table automatically.
Hope this helps. Good luck.