Question

Trying to build a function that can insert into a SQL database regardless of how many or how few variables there are. Currently my function is not working.

function insert($table, $columns, $results){
    global $dbh;
    $results = explode(',',$results); 
    $val= ''; 
    $ex = '';
    foreach($results as $result){ 
        $val .= ":" . $result . ","; 
        $ex = "':" . $result . "' => $result,"; 
    }
    $val = rtrim($val, ','); 
    $ex = rtrim($ex, ',');
    $sql = "INSERT INTO $table ($columns) VALUES ($val)";
    $q = $dbh->prepare($sql);
    $q->execute(array($ex));
}

Called like this: insert('users','email,pwd,forename,surname,level,status',$vals);

Where as I managed to get it working for my Select function.

function check($table,$columns,$results){
    global $dbh;
    $columns = explode(',',$columns);
    $results = explode(',',$results); 
    $whr= ''; 
    $int = 0;
    foreach($columns as $column){ 
        $whr.= " AND " . $column . " = '{$results[$int]}'"; 
        $int += 1; 
    }
    $sql = "SELECT * FROM $table WHERE status != 'D' $whr";
    $return = 0;
    foreach($dbh->query($sql) as $check){ 
        $return = 1; 
    } 
    return $return;
}

Answer 1

First, I would probably pass your columns and values into the function as an associative array. This helps force the fact that the function caller must pass an equal number of both. At the very least you should have logic that compares the number of the passed in columns and value elements to make sure they are equal. You might try something like this (note I am also passing the DB connection in as a parameter, which is better coding practice).

function insert($db, $table, $key_value_array) {
    $sql = 'INSERT INTO ' . $table . ' '; 
    $columns = '(';
    $values = '(';
    foreach ($key_value_array as $k => $v) {
        $columns .= '`' . $k . '`, ';
        $values .= "'" . $v . "', ";
    }
    $columns = rtrim($columns, ', ') . ')';
    $values = rtrim($values, ', ') . ')';
    $sql .= $columns . ' VALUES ' . $values;
    $q = $db->prepare($sql);
    $q->execute();
}