Updating the mysql database with varying number of text boxes - php

Question

I have multiple text boxes displaying a string corresponding to a row in the mysql database. I want to be able to change each string in the database by typing in the textbox and clicking submit.
So I create my text boxes with a while loop after connecting to the DB.
<form action="<?php $self ?>" form method="post">
<?php
$query = "SELECT * FROM `table` ORDER BY table.ID DESC";
$result = #mysql_query($query) or die('
ERR: The database returned an unexpected error.
');
$num=mysql_numrows($result);
$change="";
$i=0;
while ($i < $num) {
$post=mysql_result($result,$i,"post");
$id=mysql_result($result,$i,"ID");
$ts=mysql_result($result,$i,"timeStamp");
$page = html_entity_decode($post);
$output = stripslashes($page);
if ($output != "") {
echo '<textarea name="' . $id . '" rows="4" cols="70">' . $output . '</textarea><div class="time"><font face="monospace">' . $ts . '</font></div>';
} //creates tables for each filled entry with a name corrsponing to its auto-increment id.
$i++;
}
?>
<input name="send" type="hidden" />
<div class="mod">
<p><input class="master" type="submit" value="Mod" /></p></div><!--submit button is called "Mod"-->
</form>
</body>
</html>
Everything displays properly. If the database has 4 rows with text in them than it will display those 4, each in a separate text box.
Now I want to replace the text in the database with whatever the user enters in the text boxes. This is the code I tried. It does nothing.
<?php
$i=0;
while ($i < $num) {
$id=mysql_result($result,$i,"ID");
$post=mysql_result($result,$i,"post");
if (!isset($_POST[$id])) {
$_POST[$id] = "";
}
$change = $_POST[$id];
mysql_query("UPDATE 'database'.'table' SET 'post' = '$change' WHERE 'table'.'ID' ='$id';");
$i++;
}
Basically the loop will run once for every row in the table. For every text box, it should UPDATE 'database'.'table' with $_POST[1] for 'post' with ID '1', $_POST[2] for 'post' with ID '2', etc...
Instead nothing happens.
Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

As Prowla mentioned , you should use PDO instead of mysql_ functions.
Anyway, I improved your code and it suppose to work now:
<form action="<?php $self ?>" form method="post">
<?php
$query = "SELECT * FROM `table` ORDER BY table.ID DESC";
$result = #mysql_query($query) or die('Query error:'.mysql_error());
$num=mysql_num_rows($result);
$change="";
while($post = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
/*
$post = array(
'post' => '....',
'ID' => '...',
'timeStamp' => '...'
);
*/
$page = html_entity_decode($post['post']);
$output = stripslashes($page);
if ($output != "") {
echo '<textarea name="posts['.$post['ID'].']" rows="4" cols="70">' . $output . '</textarea><div class="time"><font face="monospace">' . $post['timeStamp'] . '</font></div>';
} //creates tables for each filled entry with a name corrsponing to its auto-increment id.
}
?>
<input name="send" type="hidden" />
<div class="mod">
<p><input class="master" type="submit" value="Mod" /></p></div><!--submit button is called "Mod"-->
</form>
</body>
</html>
The php update file:
$query = "SELECT * FROM `table` ORDER BY table.ID DESC";
$result = #mysql_query($query) or die('Query error:'.mysql_error());
while($update_post = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
$update = (isset($_POST[$update_post['ID']])) ? $_POST[$update_post['ID']] : "";
if($update != "")
{
mysql_query("UPDATE 'database'.'table' SET 'post' = '$update' WHERE 'table'.'ID' ='".$update_post['ID']."';");
echo "<!--POST ID ".$update_post['ID']." been updated-->\n";
}
}
I added an html comment (<!-- -->) so you can check if the update actually takes place.
This way you can debug your code. (you should also read about print_r , var_dump)