Question

I have two PHP/SQL functions and I am wondering how I would minify them. I’d like to run the 3 insert commands as a single $import rather than three, but I am not sure how to minify it.

$import9="INSERT into wp_postmeta (meta_id,post_id,meta_key,meta_value) values(',','$data[37]','lower_electric_costs','$data[5]')";
$import10="INSERT into wp_postmeta (meta_id,post_id,meta_key,meta_value) values(',','$data[37]','cheapest_green_electric','$data[6]')";
$import11="INSERT into wp_postmeta (meta_id,post_id,meta_key,meta_value) values(',','$data[37]','contract_type','$data[11]')";

Its the same thing with my PRINT results – how would I minify this down?

mysql_query($import9) or die("mysql_error()");
print $import9."<br>";
mysql_query($import10) or die("mysql_error()");
print $import10."<br>";
mysql_query($import11) or die("mysql_error()");
print $import11."<br>";

I am still learning PHP/SQL and learning how to minify my code is an important part of it I think. If someone can just how me an example of what a minified version would look like, then I can probably take it from there.

Thanks

Answer 1

You could combine it into a single query as follows:

$import9="
    INSERT into
        wp_postmeta
        (meta_id,post_id,meta_key,meta_value)
    values
        (',','$data[37]','lower_electric_costs','$data[5]'),
        (',','$data[37]','cheapest_green_electric','$data[6]'),
        (',','$data[37]','contract_type','$data[11]')
";

However, you should use mysqli instead of mysql functions, as mysql functions are deprecated.

mysqli_query($import9);

It is also advised that you do not use INSERT queries with mysqli_query but rather use Prepared Statements for security reasons. You should check out PDO and Prepared Statements.

First, create a PDO instance.

$db = new PDO("mysql:host=localhost;port=3306;dbname=mydb", "username", "password");
$db->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES, false); //Turn off prepared statement emulation too.

With a prepared statement, you would prepare your statement with the server:

$stmt = $db->prepare("
    INSERT into
        wp_postmeta
        (meta_id,post_id,meta_key,meta_value)
    values
        (?,?,?,?)
");

With an array like:

$values = array(
    array(',',$data[37], 'lower_electric_costs', $data[5]),
    array(',',$data[37], 'cheapest_green_electric', $data[6]),
    array(',',$data[37], 'contract_type', $data[11]),
);

Next, you’d issue a series of execute statements:

foreach ($values as $v) {
    $stmt->execute($v);
}

Finally, close the statement so that more statements can be executed:

$stmt->closeCursor();