Post variables from a second table in form - php

Question

I'm trying post 3 variables in order to insert them in table2. As you can see I'm using a SELECT to get 3 variables from table1 to insert into a table2 but can't see the input value when looking at the source.
The loop works. I get results in the loop but the input post echo's nothing. I've tried many different ways but can't seem to get it to work. Can someone help?
<?php
include('theconnection.php');
$con = mysqli_connect($host,$user,$pass,$dbName);
if (!$con)
{
die('cannot connect: ' . mysqli_error($con));
}
mysqli_select_db($con,"thebooks");
$result = mysqli_query($con,"SELECT * FROM books");
$result = mysqli_query($con,"SELECT b.id, b.name, b.cover, b.pageno FROM books");
while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result))
{
echo ("<input type='text' value='$row[name]' name='name' id='name'>");
echo ("<input type='text' value='$row[cover]' name='cover' id='cover'>");
echo ("<input type='text' value='$row[pageno]' name='pageno' id='pageno'>");
}
?>
<input type="hidden" name="name" id="name" value="<?php echo "{$_POST['name']}"; ?>">
<input type="hidden" name="cover" id="cover" value="<?php echo "{$_POST['cover']}"; ?>">
<input type="hidden" name="pageno" id="pageno" value="<?php echo "{$_POST['pageno']}"; ?>">

Answer 1

$result = mysqli_query($con,"SELECT * FROM books");
$result = mysqli_query($con,"SELECT b.id, b.name, b.cover, b.pageno FROM books");
I don't see why there are two queries. You can just drop the first one. Also, I'd like to suggest you this-
Instead of echoing like this
while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result))
{
echo ("<input type='text' value='$row[name]' name='name' id='name'>");
echo ("<input type='text' value='$row[cover]' name='cover' id='cover'>");
echo ("<input type='text' value='$row[pageno]' name='pageno' id='pageno'>");
}
echo it like this-
while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result))
{
echo "<input type='text' value='" . $row[name] . "' name='name' id='name'>";
echo "<input type='text' value='" . $row[cover] . "' name='cover' id='cover'>";
echo "<input type='text' value='" . $row[pageno] . "' name='pageno' id='pageno'>";
}
In your last bit of code, please make these small changes-
<input type="hidden" name="name" id="name" value="<?php echo $_POST['name']; ?>">
<input type="hidden" name="cover" id="cover" value="<?php echo $_POST['cover']; ?>">
<input type="hidden" name="pageno" id="pageno" value="<?php echo $_POST['pageno']; ?>">
Please clarify- why would you echo input controls in a loop? You could potentially get hundreds of input controls rendered on your page. Now you don't want that do you? Hope my answer helps.