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I have the following array:

$array[0] = "internet";
$array[1] = "renweb";

and so on.

I want to insert that array into a table. I do not know how many positions the array will have as this is a post coming from a form that a user fills. How can I insert them into a table?

I was thinking on a foreach

something like: 

foreach($array as $tags){
    $query = sprintf("insert into solution_tags values('%s')", $tags);
    $DBconnect->query($query);
}

Is it the correct approach? Or is there a more easy, efficient, painless way to do it?

Any help will be much appreciated!

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this is a good way to do it. –  Aris Oct 27 '13 at 19:55
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4 Answers

up vote 0 down vote

You could save the array to a textfile and then do a bulk insert:

$file=.... /* your temp filename */
file_put_contents($file,implode("\n",$array));
$DBconnect->query("LOAD DATA INFILE '$file' INTO TABLE solution_tags");

...provided, of course, that the web server and the DB server share the same filesystem!

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up vote 0 down vote

To answer the question you asked:

Do look for the painless approach only if you feel a pain. Do you? Express it then, to make others understand what certainly makes you uneasy, to let them offer certain solution for this very issue. If not - just leave it as is. Exactly the same goes for the efficiency. And easiness too. Altering your code without a reason, just out of a whim, out of nowhere, may cause much more troubles than you imagine with your current code.

To answer the question you didn't ask:

Your approach, as well as in all the answers, suffers from one essential flaw: you don't format your query properly. Which may lead to unpredictable consequences. To format your query properly you have to use prepared statements

$stm = $DBconnect->prepare("insert into solution_tags values(?)");
$stm->bind_param('s', $tag);

foreach($array as $tag){
    $stm->execute();
}

again: this is not a matter of "efficiency" or "ease" (as a matter of fact, on a more or less complex query this approach will be a pain compared to your current one), but matter of essential approach you ought to follow with every your query.

On a side note, you may wish to add some field(s) to this table to link these tags to some other entities.

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I might be wrong but bind_param should be inside of loop, right? –  speccode Oct 28 '13 at 8:56
 
if you have any doubts - just run the code and see. –  Your Common Sense Oct 28 '13 at 9:08
 
Yup, I was wrong. Sorry. –  speccode Oct 28 '13 at 9:29
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up vote -1 down vote

The best way is using foreach like this : 

foreach( $myarray as $tags) {
mysql_query('insert into solution_tags values('$tags')');
}
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You just un-sanitized user input. –  geomagas Oct 27 '13 at 19:53
 
This is pretty much the same thing I did on my query. –  Yisera Oct 27 '13 at 20:11
 
@Yisera: You can safely remove the "pretty much" part. Also, it uses deprecated mysql_ stuff. –  geomagas Oct 27 '13 at 20:13
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up vote -1 down vote

You can do many insert's with one query:

$aValues = array();
foreach($array as $tags) {
    $aValues[] = sprintf('("%s")');
}

$query = 'INSERT INTO solution_tags VALUES '.implode(',', $aValues);
$DBconnect->query($query);

I used implode because it will handle commas for you.

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Ok, and why this approach is wrong? –  speccode Oct 28 '13 at 6:39
 
Because all the participants of this answer have to read this question: stackoverflow.com/questions/60174/… –  Your Common Sense Oct 28 '13 at 6:40
 
Why of course that PDO is much better solution for DB but still... Let's assume that we have PDO here. You prefere to make 12 $sth->execute() or one? –  speccode Oct 28 '13 at 6:43
 
Your latest comment is just irrelevant, sorry. And your answer is still has unacceptable quality. –  Your Common Sense Oct 28 '13 at 6:46
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