Combining two input arrays into a single array to input into a database with PHP

Question

I have a jQuery function that allows a user to create a list of links. By clicking on an "add row" link they create as many of these blocks (shown below) as they like which they can type the information into.

<div class="links_row">

    <input type="text" name="link_name[]">
    <input type="text" name="link_url[]">

</div>

I am posting this data to a PHP function to insert into a database which looks like this:

+---------------+
|id             |
+---------------+
|name           |
+---------------+
|url            |
+---------------+

I need to work out how to combine the two input arrays link_name[] and link_url[] and loop through the resulting single array, inserting each as a row in the database.

Benbob · Accepted Answer · 2010-07-12 03:00:38Z

2

Probably not the cleanest way of doing this, but a quick loop should do it. I'm assuming you've validated and sanitized the form data and made sure the arrays are the same size.

$rows = array();

$num_results = count($_POST['link_name']);
for($i = 0; $i < $num_results;  $i++) {
    $rows[$i]['url'] = $_POST['link_url'][$i];
    $rows[$i]['name'] = $_POST['link_name'][$i];
}

edited Jul 12, 2010 at 3:00

answered Jul 12, 2010 at 2:51

Benbob

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1 Comment

Ben Over a year ago

+1. quick and simple, I think this is more what Plasticated is after

Kalium · Accepted Answer · 2010-07-12 02:40:29Z

1

Combine. You mean like array_merge() combine?

If so, use that.

EDIT: On second thought, you might want array_combine(). It takes two arrays and returns one where one of the input arrays provides the keys and the other provides the values.

edited Jul 12, 2010 at 2:40

answered Jul 12, 2010 at 2:32

Kalium

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6 Comments

Ben Over a year ago

how is array_combine going to solve his problem? would love to see a code sample

Kalium Over a year ago

array_combine() to associate one array with a second array. Assuming sane HTML, they'll be in the same order. Couple with a table that generates its own IDs (autoincrement or trigger/sequence or whatever) and an inserting foreach.

Benbob Over a year ago

It's a nice function but inserting into a database he will probably just want an array of rows, each being an array of column => value pairs. This is how many frameworks work.

Kalium Over a year ago

We don't even know if there's a framework involved or not. From the way the question was posed, I assumed not.

Plasticated Over a year ago

I'm using Codeigniter. I didn't mention that in case it put off people with no knowledge of the framework from answering. I would be interested is hear if this changes things at all?

|

Swift · Accepted Answer · 2010-07-12 02:36:51Z

0

No, youre better off with an array map because the numbers would correlate. Check out:

http://php.net/manual/en/function.array-map.php

answered Jul 12, 2010 at 2:36

Swift

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