get selected information from mysql via dropdown menu - php

Question

I have a simple drop down menu.
<form method="post" action="index.php">
<select name="mountname">
<option value="white">white</option>
<option value="black">black</option>
<option value="yellow">yellow</option>
<option value="green">green</option>
</select>
<input type="submit" value="Submit Pick" />
to save what is selected I used.
if (!empty($_POST['color'])){
$id = $_SESSION['user_id'];
$color = $_POST['color'];
mysqli_query($mysqli,"UPDATE users SET home_color='".$color."' WHERE id='".$id."'")or die("error == ----> ".mysqli_error());
mysqli_close($mysqli);
header('Location: index.php');
}
saving the color to mysql is no problem.
//update//
the USER table is set up like this.
ID, username,password, first_name, last_name, email,home_color
When a user selects his home color, and then submits it it is saved to the db.
ie 1, Bob, MD5pass, Bob,Smith,Bob#bob.com, Black
2, Joe, MD5pass, Joe,Doe,joe#Doe.com, Green
now i have another table called mount.
mount has color info in it.
this table hold color name, and info.
ID, color_name, color_info
the ID is is an INT with A_I.
Bob Logs in and selects his home color saves it to his profile.
so now when a person goes to bobs profile the will see color info.
how do I make it where it reads profile info and displays info from another table.
something like the code below. I know the code is wrong, but only way i can explain it.
if (black){
mysqli_query($mysqli,"SELECT * FROM mount;
}else{
(green)

Answer 1

As you said, color is saved in user's table. Problem is how to fetch color's data from mount along with user's data..
On Profile Page, you can get details of user with color by ..
$id = $_SESSION['user_id'];
$res = mysqli_query($mysqli,"SELECT * FROM users u, mount c WHERE u.home_color=c.color_name AND u.id='".$id."'")or die("error == ----> ".mysqli_error());
$result = mysqli_fetch_array($res);
mysqli_close($mysqli);
Now, you can manipulate $result as it contains users detail as well as color detail! We are getting data from both tables users and mount by same keys comparision home_color of users and color of mount.
If you saved colors in mount like 'Black', I'm suggesting you to keep same keyword in <select> dropdown, as 'Black' is not equal to 'black'.
Another thing I want to suggest you is, Change your select dropdown to dynamic. Fetch color data from table mount and use it like..
<select name="mountname">
<?php
$res_colors = mysqli_query($mysqli, "SELECT * FROM mount");
$colors = mysqli_fetch_array($res_colors);
foreach($colors as $color){
?>
<option value="<?php echo $color['color']; ?>"><?php echo $color['color']; ?></option>
<?php } ?>
</select>
Best way to use primary key as foreign key, so use ID of mount instead of color for dropdown and saving it to user's table.