Question

I am creating a PHP function that will take some values, one of which is an array, that I need to use in a MySQL query.

I am creating the array as follows:

 $newsArray = createArticleArray(array(2,20,3),5); 

Then the function looks something like this (cut down for readability)

 function createArticleArray($sectionArray = array(1),$itemsToShow) 
 { 
 $SQL = "
  SELECT 
    *
  FROM
    tbl_section
  WHERE
    (tbl_section.fld_section_uid = 2 OR tbl_section.fld_section_uid = 20 OR tbl_section.fld_section_uid = 3)
  ORDER BY
    tbl_article.fld_date_created DESC LIMIT 0,$itemsToShow";
 }  

The section tbl_section.fld_section_uid = 2 OR tbl_section.fld_section_uid = 20 OR tbl_section.fld_section_uid = 3 is where I need to use the array values.

Basically I need to loop through the values in the array making up that part of the query, however I am having a little problem on how to show or not show the “OR” bits of it as there might be only 1 value or as many as I need.

I was thinking of something like this:

 foreach($sectionArray as $section)
 {
   $sqlString = $sqlString . "tbl_section.fld_section_uid = $section OR";
 }

but I don’t know how to work out if to put the “OR” in there.

Answer 1

Use implode.

$conditionParts = array(); 
foreach($sectionArray as $section){
   $conditionParts[] = "tbl_section.fld_section_uid = $section";
}
$sqlString .= implode(' OR ', $conditionParts);

This solution answers your question and show you how to use the implode function, but for your specific case you should really use the IN operator.

$sqlString .= "tbl_section.fld_section_uid IN(".implode(',', $sectionArray).")";