Select players as team and mark in db as selected - php

Question

i have one table named players with 2 columns: players and status
I need to select unique random teams!
Every team has X players as: Y base and Z pivots
Y and Z its set due input form
If in insert 3 for base and 2 for pivots The result should be like 3 teams or 3 players:
team 1
Base 1
Pivot 1
Pivot 2
team 2
Base 1
Pivot 1
Pivot 2
team 3
Base 1
Pivot 1
Pivot 2
After i generate teams i must be able to set status as "selected". If i need to create another team all users with status "selected" can't be use in another new team!
I currently use:
$nteams=$_POST['teams'];
$nbase=$_POST['base'];
$npivots=$_POST['pivots'];
$allplayers=$nteams*($nbase+$npivots);
require_once "connect_to_mysql.php";
$sqlCommand = "SELECT id FROM players ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT $allplayers";
$query = mysql_query($sqlCommand) or die (mysql_error());
if(mysql_num_rows($query)<$allplayers) // sanity
die('Not enough players!');
else
for($team=1;$team<=$nteams;$team++)
{
for($base=1;$base<=$nbase;$base++)
{
$row = mysql_fetch_array($query);
echo "Team $team Base $base = {$row['id']}<br />";
}
for($pivot=1;$pivot<=$npivots;$pivot++)
{
$row = mysql_fetch_array($query);
echo "Team $team Pivot $pivot = {$row['id']}<br />";
}
}
mysql_close();

Answer 1

Add WHERE status<>'selected' to your $sqlCommand statement
Store all read IDs from the database in an array, e.g. $selectedIds
Run update script UPDATE players SET status='selected' WHERE id IN ('.implode(',', $selectedIds).')
Side notes:
Consider rewriting the whole loop. It can be done in one while loop and one cursor/flag - let this be a homework :)
Beware of SQL Injection
You can wrap SELECT and UPDATE in a transaction to avoid inconsistency and conflicts