Question

I am very new to mysql and php. I need to put an array from php into a data table:

The array looks like this:

$memberdata
    Key    value
    apple  5
    banana 8
    salmon 3
    candle 4
    ..........
    and 100 more...

My mysql table looks like this:

MemberTable
    ID(INT11)=PK    MemID(INT11)      stuff(varchar)     value(INT2)
    1               23                apple              5
    2               23                banana             8
    3               23                salmon             3
    4               23                candle             4
    5               45                banana             1
    6               45                apple              9

So each member; here member 23 and 45 can have the same stuff but with other values, so for every member i have one php array of data. (mysql ID is auto increment).

My question: is there a possibility to store an array directly into a mysql table…?
In a book that i read they make a foreach loop and in the loop they open a connection to the database… so i thought that is maybe to time consuming:

book example:

$cxn = mysqli_connect($host,$user,$pass,$dbname);
$MemID = "23";
$query_pre = "INSERT INTO MemberTable ('MemID','stuff','value') VALUES (";
Foreach ($memberdata as $stuff => $value)
{
 $query = $query_pre . "$MemID,$stuff,$value)"; 
 $result = mysqli_query($cxn, $query) or die ("Couldn't execute query");
}  

Regards,
Thijs

Answer 1

Well that’s very strange book.
Although idea in general is right, this particular code contains both PHP and mysql errors.

it should be something like this (not tested):

$cxn = mysqli_connect($host,$user,$pass,$dbname);
$MemID = "23";
$prequery = array();
Foreach ($memberdata as $stuff => $value)
{
  $stuff = mysqli_real_escape_string($stuff);
  $value = mysqli_real_escape_string($value);
  $prequery[] = "($MemID,'$stuff','$value')"; 
} 
$query = "INSERT INTO MemberTable (MemID,stuff,value) VALUES ".implode(",",$prequery);
$result = mysqli_query($cxn, $query) or die (mysqli_error($cxn).$query);