storing arrays into mySQL with php explode() - php

Question

I am making a website for a cars show, i want to store images in the database (just the URL) and what i want to do is for all the images to be added to the same cell in the table.
then at retrieval time, i want to use the explode() command in php so i can seperate each URL and use a loop to display them.
the problem i am facing it i do not know what i should use for a delimiter, i cannot use anything that can be used in windows, mac or Linux which can be used in a file name, and i am afraid of using a system reserved key and cause a problem.
i am also concerned about the data type that will hold this information, i am thinking TEXT is best here but i heard many saying it causes problem.
to be clear, the idea is:
when someone uploads 3 images, the images will be uploaded into a folder, then the names will be taken and put into 1 string (after the directories names are added) with a separator between them that then will be stored in the database.
Then, i take that string, use explode() and store the separated data in an array and use a loop to display an image with the source being the stored data in the array.
i need a special delimiter or another way... can someone help me do this or tell me another way of saving the images somehow without a potential risk! i have seen many website which uses dynamic bullet points (lists) but i was never able to get a code or even an idea of how to do them.
EDIT:
The current way i am using is having 10 rows, 1 for each image.. but the problem here is that the user will not be able to add more than 10 images, and if he has less than 10 images then there will be few empty images being displayed. (i know a solution for the empty images, but it is impossible to add more images..)

Answer 1

You can to use any type of
serialization(serialize, json_encode), when put your array and
deserialization(unserialize, json_decode), when want to use it.
But! I advice you to create a new table for your images, with car_id field, for example.
Then you can just join it and get it all.
It can be CarImages ('id', 'car_id', 'image_file')
Also I recommend to add foreign key constraint on CarImages.car_id->Cars.id,
then your orphaned images will cascade removed, when cars will removed.
Storing of serialized values is always bad idea.

Answer 2

If you can't store one row per image on a separate table for any technical debt reason, then you should json_encode the array on images paths and store the result in database.

Answer 3

Solution one :
Create a table called Images contains 3 columns (id,image_path,user_id) and everytime the user uploads an image insert it into this table, and in your script if you want to display the uploads for a specified user get it by the user_id :
$user_id = 1 // The specified user id;
mysqli_query($connect, "SELECT * FROM images WHERE user_id = '$user_id'");
// And Loop here trough images
Solution Two :
Inserting images paths into one column.
Table files contains 1 column called path
Inserting the values to the files table :
$array = array(
'/path/to/file/1',
'/path/to/file/2',
'/path/to/file/3'
);
foreach($array as $path) {
$path = $path . '|';
mysqli_query($connect, "INSERT INTO files (path) VALUES ('$path');
}
Now display the results :
$query = mysqli_query($connect, "SELECT path FROM files");
$row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($query);
$paths = explode('|', $row['path']);
foreach($paths as $path) {
echo $path . '<br>';
}

Answer 4

If you do not change your database then you should try.I think below link useful for you
json
json-encode serialize
you can use anyone.
If You design Your Tables like
Table-user
user_id
username
another table for user images
Table-images
serial_num
user_id
image_url
then you can store many images for 1 user.here user_id of images table actually the foreign key of user table's user_id.
You are using relational database so it's good for you otherwise you can use nosql database