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I have a form that is made up of lots of radio buttons and check-boxes, and I was wondering what the best way to save their values to the database is. There are a few things to take into account.

  1. All the the radio/checkboxes have different names. I've already created a new table with a column for each radio/checkbox, 30 new columns in total. I was advised this way is better than storing multiple checkboxes values in a single column.

  2. I am working on a system based on the MVC Model, and this is the code I have in the controller file to send the radio/checkbox value to the database

    if (isset($this->request->post['buss_type'])) {
    $this->data['buss_type'] = $this->request->post['buss_type'];
} else {
    $this->data['buss_type'] = '';
}

  3. I was wondering if I am forced to duplicate the previous code for my 30 radio/checkboxes, or is there's a simpler way in which I could put all radio/checkboxes together?

  4. I'd appreciate it very much if you are really specific since I just started learning PHP.

EDIT DEMO ADDED Click on "Corporate Account" to see the form.

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    You should almost NEVER store multiple values in one column. The one exception would be combined binary values as a single integer, and even that only works for specific systems. Commented Mar 15, 2012 at 22:03

4 Answers 4

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Well this will help with Q.3 at least

foreach(array('buss_type','anotherfield','anotherfield','...etc') as $index)
{
  if (isset($this->request->post[$index])) { $this->data[$index] = $this->request->post[$index]; } else { $this->data[$index] = NULL; }
}
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7 Comments

with this answer, you would then have to edit both the array, and the html, anytime one of the fields change. not to mention you would have a long ugly array in your code. see my answer for a different take. create the array client side.
One thing I would be concerned with his how the DB query is built up from the data, ie do you have to account for someone using name="check[id]" in the request and interfering with columns that are not part of the check box set? my approach would create a white list of fields to use. and yes you're right, a double up of the list of check boxes names to manage would be created
Thanks a lot for your answers. This is the code I was looking for. @dqhendricks I like your recommendation, too, but I was recommended that previously but I never understood how I to exactly code it. Again, all the values have to go to unique columns in the database, so if for example, I have check[something], how do I have to name the table column for that field?. I Will add a demo of the form in a minute so you guys can take a look at it. Thanks.
@codekmarv if the input was named 'check[somekey]', when you do the loop I wrote below, $key will contain 'somekey', and $value would contain the value of that input.
so in that case what's the name of the column in the database to store the value of somekey? Is it check[somekey] or just "somekey"? Thanks a lot for you help.
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Sounds like you need a query builder. Heres an example of one of mine

$guide=array(
"active"=>"Active Properties",
"incomplete"=>"Incomplete Properties",
"default"=>"Default (Borders and Headers)   ",
"links"=>"Link Color",
"background"=>"Background Color",
"navcolor"=>"Navigation Color");

$s="UPDATE dashboard_layout SET ";
$c="";
$vs="";
foreach($guide as $k=>$v){
$s.="`$k` = \"".mysql_real_escape_string($_POST[$k])."\"".($k=="navcolor"?"":",")." ";
$c.="`$k`".($k=="navcolor"?"":",");
$vs.='"'.mysql_real_escape_string($_POST[$k]).'"'.($k=="navcolor"?"":",");
}
$n="INSERT INTO dashboard_layout ($c,lender_id) VALUES ($vs,$company)";
$s.="WHERE lender_id='$company'";
$sql=($editmode?$s:$n);
$db->run($sql);

Keep in mind you can still use foreach with objects. I recommend using a guide

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1 Comment

Thanks, but I actually don't understand how this can help me. I guess I am too noob :(
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if you treat all of the checkboxes the same, you could simply make them an array within your html form.

<input name="check[footype]" type="checkbox" value="1" />
<input name="check[bartype]" type="checkbox" value="baz" />

Then just loop through them server side.

foreach ($_POST['check'] as $key => $value) {
   // repeated logic here

}

Basically by naming the inputs in your form this way, you are making $_POST['check'] contain an array with all of your check values server side which you can loop through.

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He's right, you would have to keep in mind that the data from the user could not be trusted. Users could slip any data in the array with any array key.
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adding to dqhendricks reply, if you are building the query yourself and not through a framework, this might help you (I haven't tried it though!):

$values = array();
foreach ($_POST['check'] as $key => $value ) {
    // I advise you to use either PDO or mysqli but to simplify:
    $values = "'" . mysql_real_escape_string($value) . "'";
}

// all values will be separated by a comma
$values_list = implode(',', $values);

$query = "insert into table_name values ($values_list)";
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1 Comment

But again ... isn't it that it's not recommended to store all values in a single column?

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