Question

I want to take a short string, and manipulate it in PHP so various parts of it can be inserted into various parts of the database.

It’s a way I want to add contact information into my system.

I use a series of short codes to denote what I want the string to do. So:

• NC = New contact
• DESC = A description of the contact
• MB = A cell phone number
• HM = A home phone number
• BS = A business number
• EM = An email address

So for example:

$string = "NC John Doe DESC President USA MB 555123123 HM 12341234 EM [e-mail]"

And so on. I can’t see why there needs to be a limit on the length.

What would you do in PHP to make this easy? I want to add phone numbers to the phone table, emails to the email table and contacts to the contact table.

I also have short codes for updates (to add more numbers to existing contacts)

• UPD – Update contact X
• AMB – Add cell
• (Axx – “A” is add)
• I won’t bother with delete/change

$string = "UPD John Doe AMB 55512341233 AEM [e-mail]"

I know it’s a bit of an odd way to get things into a system, but it’s quick to type when I’m on the run.

Answer 1

I Agree with Michael J.V. about using an array. It would be easy to add/change actions

Example:

function getAction($action) {
    $actions = array(
        'NC'    => 'New contact',
        'DESC'  => 'A description of the contact',
        'MB'    => 'A cell phone number',
        'HM'    => 'A home phone number',
        'BS'    => 'A business number',
        'EM'    => 'An email address',
    );
    return $actions[$action];
}

$selected = 'DESC';
echo 'Action Selected: '.getAction($selected)."\n";