Form, having multiple records input based on single column parameter

Question

I've created a local website to inventory and catalog my comics and I'm wondering how I can possibly expedite the addition of certain records.

For instance, I might want to add 10 sequential issues of a series without having to type mostly redundant data in my form over and over again. I'm wondering if when I'm adding a record I could add a checkbox for multiple issues and maybe have an input for a number with a starting issue parameter or something like that?

I have a form and my insert method:

<form action="addBooks.php" method="post">
<div class="row">
        <div class="col-xs-3">
            <label>Title:</label>
            <input type="text" class="form-control" name="title" required>
        </div>
        <div class="col-xs-3">
            <label>Main Character:</label>
            <input type="text" class="form-control" name="mainCharacter" required>
        </div>
        <div class="col-xs-3">
            <label>Author:</label>
            <input type="text" class="form-control" name="author" required>
        </div>
        <div class="col-xs-3">
            <label>Illustrator:</label>
            <input type="text" class="form-control" name="illustrator" required>
        </div>
    </div>
    <br>
    <div class="row">
        <div class="col-xs-3">
            <label>Issue:</label>
            <input type="text" class="form-control" name="issue" required>
        </div>
        <div class="col-xs-3">
            <label>Cover:</label>
            <input type="text" class="form-control" name="cover" required>
        </div>
        <div class="col-xs-3">
            <label>Year Published:</label>
            <input type="text" class="form-control" name="yearPub" required>
        </div>
        <div class="col-xs-3">
            <label>Comments:</label>
            <textarea class="form-control" name="comments"></textarea>
        </div>
    </div>
<button type="submit" class="btn btn-default">Submit</button>

INSERT INTO comics.comic_inventory 
        (Title,Author,Illustrator,Main_character,issue,cover,publish_date,comments,date_added)
    VALUES ('$_POST[title]',
            '$_POST[author]',
            '$_POST[illustrator]',
            '$_POST[mainCharacter]',
            '$_POST[issue]',
            '$_POST[cover]',
            '$_POST[yearPub]',
            '$_POST[comments]',
            current_timestamp()
            )";

if ($conn->query($sql) === TRUE) {
header("Location: index.php");
} else {
echo "Error: " . $sql . "<br>" . $conn->error;
}

So I would want to have it enter 10 records with the same data except for the issue number. Maybe I could have an input for starting issue, so if I put '1' as the starting issue it would insert 10 records with issue going from 1 through 10. Does that make sense?

If I understand what your attempting to accomplish, what about a simple Javascript function that would populate all the fields with the same data that you entered in the first one? Is that what your trying to do? — Luay
– Luay, Commented Nov 19, 2018 at 2:56

Nick · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-19 04:03:02Z

One solution would be to allow the use of a string such as 1-10 in the issue input of your form. Then you could do something like this in your PHP:

if (strpos($_POST['issue'], '-') !== false) {
    $issues = range(...explode('-', $_POST['issue']));
}
else {
    $issues = array($_POST['issue']);
}
foreach ($issues as $issue) {
    $sql = "INSERT INTO comics.comic_inventory (Title,Author,Illustrator,Main_character,issue,cover,publish_date,comments,date_added)
        VALUES ('$_POST[title]',
                '$_POST[author]',
                '$_POST[illustrator]',
                '$_POST[mainCharacter]',
                '$issue',
                '$_POST[cover]',
                '$_POST[yearPub]',
                '$_POST[comments]',
                current_timestamp()
                )";    
    if ($conn->query($sql) === false) {
        echo "Error: " . $sql . "<br>" . $conn->error;
        exit;
    }
}
header("Location: index.php");

You can see the issue number splitting code working on 3v4l.org

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