Multiple Checkbox Update Query - php

Question

I have an application with multiple values from a database table that I generate alongside individual checkboxes. The checkboxes are given a value associated from the database of course.
Now what I am wanting to do is on submit update the database given the values checked or unchecked. This would be simple if I had hardcoded the values in HTML, but since the values are database driven I am not sure how I would go about doing this.
Quite simply: I want to update database given checkbox values are checked or not.

Answer 1

The title of your question says "radio" buttons, but your question asks about "checkboxes". They are very different things. Here's an example.
<input type="radio" name="fish" value="one"> One Fish
<input type="radio" name="fish" value="two"> Two Fish
<input type="radio" name="fish" value="red"> Red Fish
<input type="radio" name="fish" value="blue"> Blue Fish
The above is an example of a radio button input array. It contains one field name ("fish") and four possible values ("one", "two", "red", "blue").
Since it's a radio button, only one of those choices can be valid at any given time. That means that you either get "one" OR "two" OR "red" OR "blue", but it's not possible to select both "one" and "red" at the same time, unless the field names are different ("number", "color", for example).
Checkboxes are binary, like a light switch. They are either on or off. Each checkbox represents its own field name.
<input type="checkbox" name="light"> On
<input type="checkbox" name="status"> Single?
<input type="checkbox" name="featured"> Featured
You may check as many of these as you wish, given that each has its own individual field name that can either be true or false (on or off).
Since I don't know which one you're talking about, I'll give quick examples with each.
First, the radio example:
<? $types = array("one","two","three","four"); ?>
<? foreach ($types as $type): ?>
<input type="radio" name="fish" value="<?= $type ?>"/> <?= ucwords($type) ?> Fish
<? endforeach ?>
When the form is submitted, you will wind up with a response similar to this:
Array
(
[fish] => "one"
)
Assuming "one" was selected in the radio button array.
Now, the checkbox example:
<? $fields = array("light", "status", "featured"); ?>
<? foreach ($fields as $field): ?>
<input type="checkbox" name="<?= $field ?>"/> <?= ucwords($field) ?>
<? endforeach ?>
This provides the same HTML input as my HTML-based example above. If you check a field and submit the form, the result would look like this:
Array
(
[light] => "on"
[status] =>
[featured] => "on"
)
Where "on" is if the checkbox is checked and blank (or possibly "off") if the checkbox was not checked.
Depending on which one, you will need to insert these values into the database by taking these responses and parsing them, then creating a SQL query.
With the radio button, the variable would be simple:
$fish = $_POST['fish'];
$sql = 'INSERT INTO fishes (fish) VALUES ('.mysql_real_escape_string($fish).')';
mysql_query($sql);
With the checkbox, it would be a little more difficult:
$light = $_POST['light'] == 'on' ? 1 : 0;
$status = $_POST['status'] == 'on' ? 1 : 0;
$featured = $_POST['status'] == 'on' ? 1 : 0;
$sql = "INSERT INTO checkboxes (light, status, featured) VALUES ($light, $status, $featured)";
mysql_query($sql);
As you mentioned, your question was rather vague. I hope my answer provides enough information to get you started in the direction you need to go. This is a super basic example, of course, and you would likely want to generate the SQL statements dynamically so that you don't have to hard code every field or apply this to a more generic function to handle multiple types of forms.
Anyway, good luck. Hope this helps.

Answer 2

For those who are wondering how I accomplished this, here is my code:
$publish = $_POST['publish'];
while (list ($key,$val) = #each ($publish))
{
$temp=mysql_query("SELECT * FROM temp WHERE id = '$val'");
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($temp))
{
$id = $row['id'];
$title = $row['title'];
$maintext = $row['maintext'];
$order = $row['order'];
$pageID = $row['pageID'];
$sql = "INSERT INTO content (id, title, maintext, order, pageID) VALUES ({$row['id']}, {$row['title']}, {$row['maintext']}, {$row['order']}, {$row['pageID']})";
$sql2 = "UPDATE content SET `title` = '$title', `maintext` = '$maintext', `order` = '$order', `pageID` = '$pageID' WHERE `id` = '$id'";
$sql3 = "DELETE FROM temp WHERE id = '$id'";
mysql_query($sql);
mysql_query($sql2);
mysql_query($sql3);
}
}
?>