Sending ARRAYS to table as individual submissions - php

Question

I'm new to PHP. I'm trying to split up my array (done successfully) and submit them as individual submisions into my MYSQL Table (via FOR loops). However, using the code below, it only submits the LAST object in the array. And thus defeats the whole purpose of the desired function. Can anybody show me a way to avoid this?
$directives = "(John Doe, Directive, Time)(Jane Doe, Directive2, Time2)";
$action = explode("(" ,str_replace (")","",$directives));
for ($i = 0; $i < count($action); ++$i){
$newdata = explode("," , $action[$i]);
$name = $newdata[0];
$namesplit = explode(" " , $name);
$actiondo = $newdata[1];
$date = $newdata[2];
$sqlaction="INSERT INTO TABLE (Firstname, lastname, Description, Action, date)
VALUES
('$namesplit[0]','$namesplit[1]',' Directive','$actiondo','$date')";
}

Answer 1

You are overwriting your query in $sqlaction with each loop iteration, thus this is not useful.
You also don't need a query for each row. You can build up a query that would allow insert of all rows with a single query. Something like this:
$query = 'INSERT INTO TABLE (Firstname, lastname, Description, Action, date)
VALUES ';
for ($i = 0; $i < count($action); ++$i){
$newdata = explode("," , $action[$i]);
$name = $newdata[0];
$namesplit = explode(" " , $name);
$actiondo = $newdata[1];
$date = $newdata[2];
$query .= "('" . $namesplit[0] . "','" . $namesplit[1] . "'Directive','" . $actiondo . "','" . $date . "'),";
}
$query = rtrim(',', $query);
// not shown - execute query using $query

Answer 2

First, you would have to put the code that actually puts stuff in the database inside the loop in order to do lots of individual submissions. All your code currently does is just set the same string over and over. That's why only the last one gets inserted.
Second, why don't you just do one insert? You can have multiple values parentheses, you know. Like this:
VALUES (x, y, z), (x2, y2, z2), (x3, y3, z3)
Third, your design is just asking for trouble because you're making so many assumptions about your data. Imagine that there's a person like "James Earl Jones" in your list. Here's how it would go:
$namesplit = explode(" ", 'James Earl Jones');
echo $namesplit[0]; // = James
echo $namesplit[1]; // = Earl
Oops, now his name is just "James Earl."
To avoid this kind of thing, you have to check the data carefully before inserting it, and you really need to think about what might happen if there are extra commas or spaces every time you do those explodes.