Question

I am not sure how to go about doing this, but I have an SQL Database where I query for info. I would like to display the query results in a list on a webpage with a check-box at the beginning so the user can select which they record of info they would like to modify.

My database has over 20+ columns but I only want to display probably 5 columns of data pertaining to the query that I searched for. Currently I have the data being repopulated in text fields. But I would like to go a step further and get the data displayed in a horizontal list.

Basically something like this:

Client searches for an order in the database. Say there are 2 different orders matching the search criteria in the DB. I would like say 5 columns of data from the DB for those 2 orders displayed on a page with a check-box next to each, so the client can then select which order they want to modify.

I am not sure of the code used to display the sql data in a list with a check-box. Thanks!

Answer 1

The code below demonstrates how to:

1. Query your database
2. Display it’s output in a table with checkboxes beside each entry
3. Submit selected checkboxes to a page
4. Display selection when page reloads

Beware of some parameters that you may need to modify, e.g. database name, username, password, name of the primary key (“id”).

# connect to mysql
$db_link = mysql_connect('localhost', 'root', '');
if (!$db_link)
    die('Cannot connect : ' . mysql_error());

# select database
$db_selected = mysql_select_db('test_db', $db_link);
if (!$db_selected)
    die ('Cannot select database : ' . mysql_error());

# execute search query
$sql = 'SELECT * FROM `test_table` LIMIT 20';
$result = mysql_query($sql);

# check result
if (!$result)
    die('Could not successfully run query: ' . mysql_error());

# display returned data
if (mysql_num_rows($result) > 0)
{
    ?>
    <form action="" method="post">
    <table style="border: 1px solid black">
        <?php
            while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
            {
                echo '<tr><td>';
                echo '<input type="checkbox" name="selected[]" value="'.$row['id'].'"/>';
                echo '</td>';
                foreach ($row as $key => $value)
                    echo '<td>'.htmlspecialchars($value).'</td>';
                echo '</tr>';
            }
        ?>
    </table>
    <input type="submit"/>
    </form>
    <?php
}
else
    echo '<p>No data</p>';

# free resources
mysql_free_result($result);

# display posted data
echo '<pre>';
print_r($_POST);
echo '</pre>';

?>