Display database fields as checkboxes - php

Question

I'm trying to display all my database fields like radio buttons. For example I have this database fields :
hostess_id
hostess_name_en
hostess_surname_en
... etc ...
I want to display them as radio buttons, in order to select them, then display data information only for the selected buttons.
How can I do that?
I have something like this:
<?php
$link = mysql_connect('localhost', 'root', '');
if (!$link) {
die('Could not connect to MySQL server: ' . mysql_error());
}
$dbname = 'db_up';
$db_selected = mysql_select_db($dbname, $link);
if (!$db_selected) {
die("Could not set $dbname: " . mysql_error());
}
$res = mysql_query('select * from hostess', $link);
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)){
echo "<td><input type=\'checkbox\' name=\'hostess[]\' value=\'" . $row['hostess_id'] . "\'>" . $row['hostess_firstname_en'] . "<br />";
}
?>

Answer 1

With PDO, It will get all fields
$q = $dbh->prepare("DESCRIBE tablename");
$q->execute();
$table_fields = $q->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_COLUMN);
With deprecated mysql_*
function mysql_field_array( $query ) {
$field = mysql_num_fields( $query );
for ( $i = 0; $i < $field; $i++ ) {
$names[] = mysql_field_name( $query, $i );
}
return $names;
}
// Example of use
$fields = mysql_field_array( $query );
Than you can loop through that array of field names and use the name with your check box.

Answer 2

Checkboxes need a unique name or they need to be an array. A checkbox array would be appropriate for what you're doing:
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)){
echo "<input type='checkbox' name='hostess[]' value='" . $row['id'] . "' />" . htmlentities($row['hostess_surname_en']) . "<br />";
}
This will give you a list of checkboxes with the hostess surname next to each.
Now, when this form is submitted to a PHP script, you will be able to access the selected row id's with:
$selectedIds = $_POST['hostess']; // an array
$selectedIds is an array of the checked record ids.
I suggest using PDO or MySQLi for new code because the mysql_* library is deprecated.