insert single set of data multiple times mysql - php

Question

I have to insert single set of data multiple times , say n rows.
INSERT INTO MyTable VALUES ("John", 123, "US");
Can I insert all n rows in a single SQL statement?
here n is dynamic value n is user input , how to make insert query n times , any idea.
$sql = "INSERT INTO `mytable` VALUES(`field1`,`field2`,`field3`) VALUES ";
$count = 5;
for($i=0;$i<$coutn;$i++)
{
$sql .= " ('john','123','us' )";
}
is this correct way..

Answer 1

Yep, this can be done easily, it should look something like this:
INSERT INTO MyTable VALUES ("John", 123, "US"), ("Carl", 123, "EU"), ("Jim", 123, "FR");
However, it is good programming practice to specify the columns of your table in the query, for example:
INSERT INTO MyTable (Column1, Column2, Column3)
VALUES ("John", 123, "US"), ("Carl", 123, "EU"), ("Jim", 123, "FR");
EDIT : You can build your query like this (in for cycle), the $total is your user input:
$sql = "INSERT INTO MyTable (Column1, Column2, Column3) VALUES";
//Build SQL INSERT query
for ($i = 1; $i <= $total; $i++) {
$sql .= " ($value1, $value2, $value3), ";
}
//Trim the last comma (,)
$sql = rtrim($sql,",");
//Now, the $sql var contains the complex query.
$result = mysql_query($sql);
As you can see we do not execute the INSERT statement in the loop, but rather we build the SQL query text and then we will execute it in one pass.