Question

Here i have a query to my MySql database and I am taking out all the information about a course to be put in a row and displayed in my table. The last column of the table is a check box, that check box I want to make it so it will save the row of data for each row that it is checked off. The variable i chosen was courses[], to be saved in array then saved in session to be accessed else where. I’m not sure how to extract the row data to put in to my array. Right now I have value='$row2013 and that doesnt work because when I var_dump($courses) = array(5) { [0]=> string(5) "Array" [1]=> string(5) "Array" [2]=> string(5) "Array" [3]=> string(5) "Array" [4]=> string(5) "Array" } , Which I have selected five courses.

To sum things up, I am not saving the right thing.

case 2013:
    $string2013 = "SELECT Course.CourseCode, Course.Title, Course.WeeklyHours, Semester.Term, Semester.SemesterCode
    FROM Course, CourseOffer, Semester WHERE Semester.YearNum='$selectedYear' AND Course.CourseCode=CourseOffer.CourseCode AND
    Semester.SemesterCode=CourseOffer.SemesterCode";
    if($Result2013 = mysqli_query($link, $string2013))
    {
        echo "<form action='CourseSelection.php' method='get'>
        <table><tr><th>Code</th><th>Course Title</th><th>Hours</th><th>Term</th><th>Select</th></tr>";
        while($row2013 = mysqli_fetch_assoc($Result2013))
        {
            echo "<tr><td>$row2013[CourseCode]</td><td>$row2013[Title]</td><td>$row2013[WeeklyHours]</td>
            <td>$row2013[Term]</td><td><input type='checkbox' name='courses[]' value='$row2013'></td></tr>";
        }
        echo "</table>";
    }
    else
    {
        echo "<p>" + mysqli_error($link) + "</p>";
    }
    break;

Answer 1

You should try to save only the row ID in the value of checkbox. This way you can easily recall a row from the database by its ID. $row2013["CourseCode"] should work.

When you do the POST request, you will get an array of IDs ($_POST['courses']). Of course you need to treat it as array, so you must iterate over it in order to get all the rows you selected.

If you var_dump($_POST['courses']) you should see something like this, assuming you have selected the first 5 rows:

array (size=5)
  0 => string '1' (length=1)
  1 => string '2' (length=2)
  2 => string '3' (length=3)
  3 => string '4' (length=4)
  4 => string '5' (length=5)

Now just query the database according to the selected rows, and you’re good to go:

SELECT * 
FROM Course
WHERE CourseCode = 1
   OR CourseCode = 2
   OR CourseCode = 3
   OR CourseCode = 4
   OR CourseCode = 5