Question

Hello currently I’m working with this line of code:

    if( $get_display->level== "Nursery"){
        $lbl="Kinder";
        }
    else if( $get_display->level== "Kinder"){
        $lbl="Preparatory";
        }
    else if( $get_display->level== "Preparatory"){
        $lbl="Grade 1";
        }
    else if( $get_display->level== "Grade 1"){
        $lbl="Grade 2";
        }
     ******THE else if goes on but still the same*****

So I’m planning to automatically Pick a section depending on the students grade, I am planning to put this code in each of the if statements above. Like this:

    else if( $get_display->level== "Grade 1"){
        $lbl="Grade 2";
                 if($get_display->gpa => "88"){ 
       $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM tbl_section where level='$lbl' 
       and section_name="A"");
       $row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
               $sname = $row['section_name'];
               }else if($get_display->gpa => "80"){ 
       $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM tbl_section where level='$lbl' 
       and section_name="B"");
       $row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
               $sname = $row['section_name'];
       }else if($get_display->gpa => "75"){ 
       $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM tbl_section where level='$lbl' 
       and section_name="C"");
       $row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
               $sname = $row['section_name'];                        
                    }
        }

And $sname would be used here:

    <input type="text"  name="levele" value="<?php echo $sname;?>">

My main problem now is what if section a is full , it should automatically insert to section b right? how should i be able to do that? and should i add a field in my tbl_section to count the student who are in? And if i would tamper my DB how should it look?would appreciate any help.
(pls don’t mention my DB is very compromised, already know that just a simple project but i will implement mysql_real_escape_string() later on, don’t have the knowledge on mysqli yet.)

EDIT: section a and b are just field names in my Database here is what tbl_section looks like.

     section_id (int)
     section_name(vchar)(default names are A,B,C and cannot be changed)
     sy (school year) 
     adviser_id
     level

Sorry first time to show my db here hope this is correct.

Answer 1

I would just SELECT a section_name that is not full:

SELECT section_name, COUNT(*) 
FROM tbl_section 
WHERE level='$lbl' 
GROUP BY section_name
HAVING COUNT(*) < 80 
LIMIT 1

You also need to stop using mysql_ functions as they are being deprecated and are vulnerable to SQL injection.

Also, I would rewrite your snippet above to condense code like so:

elseif( $get_display->level== "Grade 1" ) {
    $lbl="Grade 2";

    if( $get_display->gpa => "88" ) {
        $section_name = 'A';
    }
    elseif( $get_display->gpa => "80" ) {
        $section_name = 'B';
    }
    elseif( $get_display->gpa => "75" ) {
        $section_name = 'C';                      
    }

    $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM tbl_section where level='$lbl' and section_name='$section_name' LIMIT 1");
    $row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
    $sname = $row['section_name'];  
}