PHP extract each record in variable for insert - php

Question

Here is my PHP variable:
$container = $_POST['containerNumber'];
Inside $_POST['containerNumber'], there are multiple container numbers that are retrieved when a user checks a checkbox from a form. That code is not necessary to display. Just know that $_POST['containerNumber'] can have multiple container numbers assigned to it.
What I need to do is extract each container number from the POST so that I can run a mysql INSERT statement per each container number.
In the database table, there are multiple columns, with container_num being the column I'm trying to update (for now).
How can I turn $container into an array and retrieve each container number that has been assigned to the variable?
I know I need to utilize a FOREACH loop. With that said, there will more than likely be multiple INSERT statements that will automatically be created with the loop.
$SQL = "INSERT INTO myTable (container_num) VALUES ('$container')";
// times however many containers the variable $container had stored in it
Please help.
EDIT **
Once the user checks however many checkboxes, I can display each container like this:
<INPUT name="containerNumber" id="containerNumber" class="containerNumber" />
When I do this, it can be displayed to the screen like this:
CONT_ID001, CONT_ID002, CONT_ID003...
I hope this helps.

Answer 1

There are multiple ways of doing this.
1) Give the POST parameters you're sending a name that ends with [], PHP automatically assigns them to an array when parsing the POST data. If you're sending the data from an HTML form, this is an example of how to do it:
<form action="" method="POST">
<label>
First container number:
<input type="text" name="containerNumber[]" />
</label>
<label>
Second container number:
<input type="text" name="containerNumber[]" />
</label>
<input type="submit" />
In PHP you can just do
foreach($_POST["containerNumber"] as $container) {
...
}
(Note that this is a feature of PHP and not portable to other server-side langages. This is NOT part of the HTTP specification.)
2) Separate values using some separator, in PHP use explode() to split it.
3) Send the form as JSON or encode that one field as JSON (if sent from HTML, I suggest using jQUery to do either option, as it's the easiest way) and use json_decode() in PHP to extract the contents.
4) Sevaral other options that may be suitable, depending on what exactly you're doing.

Answer 2

If I get you, you have a $_POST variable with multiple values.
If the content of $_POST['containerNumber'] is CONT_ID001, CONT_ID002, CONT_ID003
You can do this:
$result = preg_split("/, /", $_POST['containerNumber']);
//the result dump will be:
//$result[0] = "CONT_ID001";
//$result[1] = "CONT_ID002";
//$result[2] = "CONT_ID003";
The insert code should looks like to (assuming that you have one column for each number):
$SQL = "INSERT INTO myTable ";
$columns = "";
$values = "";
foreach (result as $id=>$out){
$columns .= "container_$id";
$values .= "'$out'";
if (count($result) < $id+1){
$columns .= ", ";
$values .= ", ";
}
}
$SQL .= "($columns) VALUES ($values)";
If you only have container_num column it should looks like:
$SQL = "INSERT INTO myTable (container_num) VALUES ('";
$columns = "";
$values = "";
foreach (result as $id=>$out){
$values .= $out;
if (count($result) < $id+1){
$values .= ", ";
}
}
$SQL .= "$values')";