Question

I am using DHTMLX javascript library to present a grid in a form. My users could have hundreds of products in their grid but I am only capturing the the rows they add a price to. I then need to add those rows to a MySQL database along with some other information.

Getting standard $POST information and manipulating it in my PHP scripts is about the limit of my skills so far so where I need help is the array created by the updated rows. An example of what is being captured in my $POST is:

Array
(
    [product] => 64
    [dept] => 000
    [submit] => Submit
    [gridbox_1_4] => 422
    [gridbox_64_4] => 534
    [gridbox_175_4] => 1234
    [gridbox_180_4] => 645
)

I currently capture the basic $POST variables with:

$itemcat  = filter($_POST['product']);         
$dept7    = filter($_POST['dept']);

My question is how do I capture the gridbox variables so I can use them in an INSERT statement? The only number that will change is the middle number which represents a primary key in my database for the products I need to INSERT into another table. I am assuming I need to explode the $POST variable somehow maybe? Then how do I INSERT them using something like:

"INSERT INTO submissions 
                       (product_id, user_id,submission_id, sugg_price) 
                        VALUES ('" . $gridbox_id . "','" . $myid . "','NULL', '" . $sugg . "')";

All of my reading today on arrays has given me a good understanding of how they work from a 100ft view but not how to specifically solve my problem or even how to start. I’m hoping the community can send me down the right path.

Answer 1

You can loop over the $_POST array and perform a regular expression match on each key:

// PDO will make your life so much easier
$dbh = new PDO('mysql:dbname=testdb;host=127.0.0.1', $user, $password);

// prepared statements are great - prepare once, use many
$stmt = $dbh->prepare('
  INSERT INTO submissions
    ( product_id,  user_id, submission_id,  sugg_price)
  VALUES
    (:product_id, :user_id, NULL         , :sugg_price)
');

// avoid SQL injection by passing your variables in as parameters
// see http://bobby-tables.com to understand why
$stmt->bindValue('user_id', $myid);

foreach ($_POST as $key => $val) {
  if (preg_match("/^gridbox_(\d+)_4$/", $key, $matches)) {
    $stmt->execute(array(
      ':product_id' => $matches[1],
      ':sugg_price' => $val
    ));
  }
}