Question

So I’m trying to create a function that generates a SQL query string based on a multi dimensional array.

Example:

function createQueryString($arrayToSelect, $table, $conditionalArray) {
$queryStr = "SELECT ".implode(", ", $arrayToSelect)." FROM ".$table." WHERE ";
$queryStr = $queryStr.implode(" AND ",$conditionalArray); /*NEED HELP HERE*/
return $queryStr;
}

$columnsToSelect = array('ID','username');
$table = 'table';
$conditions = array('lastname'=>'doe','zipcode'=>'12345');
echo createQueryString($columnsToSelect, $table, $conditions); /*will result in incorrect SQL syntax*/

as you can see I need help with the 3rd line as it’s currently printing

SELECT ID, username FROM table WHERE
lastname AND zipcode

but it should be printing

SELECT ID, username FROM table WHERE
lastname = ‘doe’ AND zipcode = ‘12345’

Answer 1

You’re not actually imploding a multidimensional array. $conditions is an associative array.

Just use a foreach loop inside your function createQueryString(). Something like this should work, note it’s untested.:

$terms = count($conditionalArray);
foreach ($conditionalArray as $field => $value)
{
    $terms--;
    $queryStr .= $field . ' = ' . $value;
    if ($terms)
    {
        $queryStr .= ' AND ';
    }
}

Note: To prevent SQL injection, the values should be escaped and/or quoted as appropriate/necessary for the DB employed. Don’t just copy and paste; think!