How to use a dropdown to assign a value to a certain row (out of rows that are being inserted in same form) using PHP

Question

I am creating a quiz builder using SQL, HTML and PHP, whereby the user can insert their question and four answer choices for that question (A, B, C or D). In the same form they can then choose what choice will be the correct answer from a dropdown. This should then assign the 'is correct' boolean value of that certain answer row to 1 in the database. [my database structure and what my form should look like is attached]

<?php
include ("nav.php");
include("connect.php");

$quiz_id = htmlentities($_GET["quizid"]);

$quiz = "SELECT * FROM `q_quiz` WHERE q_quiz.id ='$quiz_id'";

$quizresult= $conn->query($quiz);

if(!$quizresult){
    echo $conn->error;
}

?>
<html>
    <head>
        <title></title>
        <meta charset="utf-8">
        <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
        <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="ui/styles.css">


        <!-- UIkit CSS -->
        <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/uikit/3.0.3/css/uikit.min.css" />

        <!-- UIkit JS -->
        <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/uikit/3.0.3/js/uikit.min.js"></script>
        <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/uikit/3.0.3/js/uikit-icons.min.js"></script>
    </head>
    <body>
        <div class ='uk-container'>
             
             <?php
             if (isset($_POST['submit'])) {

                 include("connect.php");
                 
                 $newquest = $conn->real_escape_string($_POST['question']);
                 
                 $insertquest = "INSERT INTO q_questions(quiz_id, question)
                            VALUES ('$quiz_id', '$newquest')";

                 $resultquest = $conn->query($insertquest);
                 
                 $quest_id = $conn -> insert_id;
                 
                 if (!$resultquest) {
                     echo $conn->error;
                 } 
                 
                 foreach ($_POST['ans'] as $ans) {
                    $answers = $conn->real_escape_string($ans);
                    
                    $insertans = "INSERT INTO q_answers (question_id, answer) VALUES ('$quest_id', '$answers')";
                    $resultans = $conn ->query($insertans);
                    
                    if (!$resultans) {
                     echo $conn->error;
                 } else {
                     header("Location: managequiz.php?quizid=$quiz_id");
                 }   
                                            
                 } //END OF FOREACH LOOP
                 
                 
             }
             
             
             ?>
             
             <?php
                while ($row = $quizresult->fetch_assoc()) {
   $titledata = $row["title"];
                }
             ?>
                
             <div uk-grid>
                 <form class="uk-form-horizontal" method='POST' action='#'>
                 <input type='hidden' name='questionid' value=''>
                 
                 <fieldset class="uk-fieldset">
                 <legend class="uk-legend">New question for quiz: <?php echo $titledata?></legend>
                 <div class="uk-margin">
                     <label class="uk-form-label">Question</label>
                     <div class="uk-form-controls">
                         <textarea class="uk-textarea" rows="5" placeholder="Enter your question here..." name='question' required></textarea>
                     </div>
                 </div>
                 <div class="uk-margin">
                     <div class="uk-form-label">A</div>
                     <div class="uk-form-controls uk-form-controls-text">
                         <input class="uk-input" id="form-horizontal-text" type="text" name='ans[]'>
                     </div>
                     
                     <div class="uk-form-label">B</div>       
                     <div class="uk-form-controls uk-form-controls-text">
                         <input class="uk-input" id="form-horizontal-text" type="text" name='ans[]'>
                     </div>
                     
                     <div class="uk-form-label">C</div>
                     <div class="uk-form-controls uk-form-controls-text">
                         <input class="uk-input" id="form-horizontal-text" type="text" name='ans[]'>
                     </div>
                     
                     <div class="uk-form-label">D</div>
                     <div class="uk-form-controls uk-form-controls-text">
                         <input class="uk-input" id="form-horizontal-text" type="text" name='ans[]'>
                     </div>
                     
                     <div class="uk-form-label">Correct Answer:</div>
                     <div class="uk-form-controls">
                         <select class="uk-select" id="form-stacked-select">
                             <option value=''>A</option>
                             <option value=''>B</option>
                             <option value=''>C</option>
                             <option value=''>D</option>
                         </select>
                     </div>
               
                     
                     <div uk-form-custom>
                             <input class="uk-button uk-button-default" type="submit" name='submit' tabindex="-1" value='Save & Continue'>
                     </div>
                     
                 </div>
                 </fieldset>
             </form>
             </div>
    </body>
</html>

Take a look here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17139501/using-post-to-get-select-option-value-from-html — kiks73, Mar 21 '19 at 15:54
hi, i understand how that works but it doesn't really help with my question, thanks though! — bb25, Mar 21 '19 at 16:23

SteelNation · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-21T17:45:40.527

as kiks73 mentioned, you can assign values to the option of the Select and POST the selected one to your database as correct answer ID.

<html>
<select class="uk-select" id="form-stacked-select" name="correctAnswer">
    <option value='1'>A</option>
    <option value='2'>B</option>
    <option value='3'>C</option>
    <option value='4'>D</option>
</select>
</html>

If you select A, the value "1" would be sent to your database as correct answer (as long as you correct the SQL part in your php.

EDIT: I got your question a bit late, sorry. you need to POST the select aswell in order to get the nessecary information about the correct answer. You could try something like that:

         <?php

         //just a counter
         $i = 1;
         //correct boolean 1 or 0
         $bool = 0;

         if (isset($_POST['submit'])) {

             include("connect.php");

             $newquest = $conn->real_escape_string($_POST['question']);

             $insertquest = "INSERT INTO q_questions(quiz_id, question)
                        VALUES ('$quiz_id', '$newquest')";

             $resultquest = $conn->query($insertquest);

             $quest_id = $conn -> insert_id;

             if (!$resultquest) {
                 echo $conn->error;
             } 

             foreach ($_POST['ans'] as $ans) {
                //get the value of the selected answer
                $correctAnswer = $_POST['correctAnswer'];
                //check if the selected one matches with our counter
                if($i == $correctAnswer)
                {
                    $bool = 1;
                }
                else
                {   
                    $bool = 0;
                }                   
                $answers = $conn->real_escape_string($ans);

                $insertans = "INSERT INTO q_answers (question_id, answer, correct) VALUES ('$quest_id', '$answers', $bool)";
                $resultans = $conn ->query($insertans);

                if (!$resultans) {
                 echo $conn->error;
             } else {
                 header("Location: managequiz.php?quizid=$quiz_id");
             }   
                   $i ++;                     
             } //END OF FOREACH LOOP


         }


         ?>

If you POST the whole form, you can use anything in it. i made an ugly loop, which checks each time you instert an answer to your SQL DB, if this one is selected.

Thanks for your help, but do you know how id send the value to a certain row. It would need to be sent to one of the four rows (not columns) that are added as new answers in the from. — bb25, Mar 21 '19 at 16:43
Hi, just got round to trying this, it worked perfectly! thanks so much for your help I had been trying this for hours :) — bb25, Mar 23 '19 at 09:52

How to use a dropdown to assign a value to a certain row (out of rows that are being inserted in same form) using PHP

1 Answers1