Insert into table from array positions

Question

I have a couple of arrays of values. I would like to insert them into a table one row at a time using a loop. I am able to insert the correct number of rows, but the values are not inserting properly.

For example, $ingredient_general is an array that has posted to this page. Assume it has 3 values. I want the value at position 0 to insert first, then on the next loop at position 1, and then then next row gets the value at position 2. Each of the three top variables are all arrays with the same number of values in each.

I tried doing $ingredient_general['.$i.'] in values part of the query in the loop but all it did was put "$ingredient_general[0]" into the table and not the value that this represents.

    $ingredient_general = $_POST['ingredient_general'];
    $ingredient_amount = $_POST['ingredient_amount'];
    $ingredient_image = $_POST['ingredient_image'];
    $recipe_ID = $_POST['recipe_ID'];

    print_r($ingredient_general);

    //$name = $ingredient_general.$ingredient_amount;

    $c = count($ingredient_general);

    for ($i = 0; $i <= $c; $i++) {

      $addIngredientQuery = "INSERT INTO `ingredients` (recipe_ID,general_name, image) VALUES ('$recipe_ID', '$ingredient_general', '$ingredient_image')";
      mysqli_query($con, $addIngredientQuery);
      $i++;
    }

I had it there for testing. It echoed to me the contents of the array. — Kevin, Nov 28 '16 at 21:21
Possible duplicate of [parameters in MySQLi](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/728229/parameters-in-mysqli) — Shadow, Nov 28 '16 at 21:24

Daerik · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-28T21:33:48.770

You don't need to add single quotes around $i.

$addIngredientQuery = "INSERT INTO `ingredients`(recipe_ID, general_name, image) VALUES ('$recipe_ID','$ingredient_general[$i]', '$ingredient_image')";

For best practice, I would wrap your array with curly brackets, if you don't want to escape your string and concatenate it.

$addIngredientQuery = "INSERT INTO `ingredients`(recipe_ID, general_name, image) VALUES ('$recipe_ID','{$ingredient_general[$i]}', '$ingredient_image')";

Additional: You are increasing $i twice. Once in the loop and once within the loop. You also want to run the loop while $i < $c instead of $i <= $c since the pointer starts at 0 and the count starts at 1.

<?php
  $ingredient_general = array('test', 'testing', 'tester');
  $ingredient_amount = 5;
  $ingredient_image = 'image.jpg';
  $recipe_ID = 2;

  $c = count($ingredient_general);

  for($i = 0; $i < $c; $i++) {
    $addIngredientQuery = "INSERT INTO `ingredients`(recipe_ID, general_name, image) VALUES ('$recipe_ID','{$ingredient_general[$i]}', '$ingredient_image')";
    echo $addIngredientQuery . PHP_EOL;
  }
?>

Using the second method suggested, here was my output:

INSERT INTO ingredients(recipe_ID, general_name, image) VALUES ('2','test', 'image.jpg') INSERT INTO ingredients(recipe_ID, general_name, image) VALUES ('2','testing', 'image.jpg') INSERT INTO ingredients(recipe_ID, general_name, image) VALUES ('2','tester', 'image.jpg')

This is the complex (curly) syntax for string interpolation.

i tried doing it without the quotes and the table ended up inserting ingredients_general[$i] as written — Kevin, Nov 28 '16 at 21:23
Have you tried the curly brackets as mentioned in the second option? — Daerik, Nov 28 '16 at 21:23
curly braces worked...you're the man! Where would I find documentation on this? — Kevin, Nov 28 '16 at 21:30
i literally just realized i was incrementing too many time before I came back to this lol — Kevin, Nov 28 '16 at 21:32

Insert into table from array positions

1 Answers1