Using id from array in dynamically generated form - php

Question

I'm trying to dynamically generate a form from a database so that I can simply login and make changes, as well as track the votes. The form is generating fine but, I can't for the life of me figure out how to get the id from the array to post in with the data. The only successful attempt set the last one as all of their topic_id because I tried to define it in the while statement.
<?php $cat_set = fetch_categories();
if (!isset($business_name)) {
$business_name = ''; }
while($categories = mysqli_fetch_assoc($cat_set)) {
echo '<div class="category">'. "<h3>" . "Best of the Best"
.' ' . ucfirst($categories["cat_name"]) . ' ' . "</h3>";
$topic_set = get_topics_for_cat($categories["cat_id"]);
while($topics = mysqli_fetch_assoc($topic_set)) {
$topic_name = $topics["topic_name"];
echo '<div class="field">' . '<label for=' .
$topics['topic_id'] . '">' . ucfirst($topic_name) . ":" . '</label>';
echo '<input type="text"' . 'id="' .
$topics['topic_id'] . '"' . 'name="'
. $topics["topic_id"] . '"' . 'value="' .
$business_name . '"></div>';
}
echo "</div>";
}
?>
<input type="submit" value="Submit" id="submit" name="submitform"></form>
</div>
<pre>
<?php
$user_id = 3000;
if (isset($_POST['submitform'])) {
print_r($_POST);
foreach ($_POST as $business_name) {
$filtered_business_name = mysqli_real_escape_string($dbc,
$business_name);
$query = "INSERT INTO votes (";
$query .=" business_name, topic_id, user_id";
$query .= ") VALUES (";
$query .=" '$filtered_business_name', '$topics['topic_id']',
'$user_id'";
$query .=")";
$votes = mysqli_query($dbc,$query);
So more specifically I guess, what would be the best way to get $topics['topic_id'] into my query? I've tried to escape it and about everything I can think of.

Answer 1

Wrap the variable in curly brackets:
$query .=" '$filtered_business_name', '{$topics['topic_id']}', '$user_id'";

Answer 2

Do as follows:
$topic = $topics['topic_id'];
$query .=" '$filtered_business_name', '$topic', '$user_id'";

Answer 3

I must have just been using it wrong. I'd made so many edits and things that my own stuff didn't make sense, so I reversed a bunch and tried the key=>value thing ... and it worked right off. Now the query is:
if (isset($_POST['submitform'])) {
foreach($_POST as $key=>$value) {
$filtered_business_name = mysqli_real_escape_string($dbc, $value);
$query = "INSERT INTO votes (";
$query .=" business_name, topic_id, user_id";
$query .= ") VALUES (";
$query .=" '$filtered_business_name', '$key', '$user_id'";
$query .=")";
$votes = mysqli_query($dbc,$query);
confirm_query($votes);
}
}
Thank you everyone for your help, hopefully this will help someone with their crappy form building in the future.