Make HTML list from PHP array? - php

Question

I'm very new with PHP/Mysql, but I'm trying to make movie database.
There's a form where people can put in info about the movies, and the send button stores it in my database. Then another web page displays the movie list.
The text input and dropdown selections were easy. What I'm really struggling with is the multiple checkbox part. After hours of struggling I finally learned about the php array and how I can store all the values from my checkboxes using implode. My code looks like this:
$genre = implode( ';' , $_POST['genre'] );
This saves all the selected genres in the database, seperated by ;
However, I need help in displaying this data on my html page the way I want:
First off, I want to retrieve the results in a html list, instead of a;b;c
Second, I want to change a;b;c etc to actual words - for example Horror, Action, Comedy. Can this be done?
Hope someone can help! Thanks!
EDIT:
A friend told me that the best way to handle multiple checkbox values is to store them in a different table (moviegenres) and use mapping. So I rearranged my database like this:
One table called 'movies' that has the columns 'movieID' and 'title', and one table called 'moviegenres' that has the columns 'movieID' and 'moviegenre'.
I can still save the title into 'title' in 'movies', but when I want to add a command for adding genre to the 'moviegenres' table, nothing works...
What is the simplest way to do this?
Do I need to different commands for inserting into two tables, or can I do everything in one command, using one variable?

Answer 1

You can take the data say
$genre = 'a:b:c';
and use
$genreArr = explode(';', $genre);
to get this as an array. where you can get the values like
$genreArr[0] = 'a';
$genreArr[1] = 'b';
then in php page, use this code:
echo '<ul>';
foreach($genreArr as $g)
{
echo '<li>'. $g.'</li>';
}
echo '</ul>';

Answer 2

Yes you can used the explode() function to get an array of database checkbox values like you have fetching from db a;b;c
$values = explode(';', $dbcheckboxes);
After this just display in html. If you want to display actual words then make one array of actual words like
$actual_words = array(a => 'Horror', b => 'Action', c => 'Comedy');
Just compare the above database values with actual words array keys and you will get it.

Answer 3

You can get data explode it and loop it to print those values in html.
$checkbox_values=explode(";","a;b;c");
$map=array("a"=>"Apple","b"=>"banana","c"=>"carrot");
foreach($checkbox_values as $value)
{
echo "<p>"+$map[$value]+"</p>";
}
This would be a solution for your question.But since creating a map variable wont be dynamic, it is better to store the display string as it is to database such as "apple;banana;carrot".

Answer 4

$genre = implode( ';' , $_POST['genre'] );
$array_values = explode(';', $genre);
foreach ($array_values as $values) {
echo $values.'<br>';
}