An efficient way to save an Array and its Keys to a database

Question

Hello all,

I am trying to save lots of variables to a database and its getting ridiculous now. I am using PHP and MySQL.

Is there a way, I can get the array value and the array keys (array keys are exactly saqme as the table column/field names) in one go without having to add a new variable and table column pair.

To be honest, I just need help with constructing the SQL String only, the rest is setup for me.

I can add the new column to the database table when I have to store a new variable.

Thanks all for any help

Answer 1

You could try storing a serialized array of options in the database. for example, from: http://us3.php.net/manual/en/function.serialize.php.

<?php
// $session_data contains a multi-dimensional array with session
// information for the current user.  We use serialize() to store
// it in a database at the end of the request.

$conn = odbc_connect("webdb", "php", "chicken");
$stmt = odbc_prepare($conn,
      "UPDATE sessions SET data = ? WHERE id = ?");
$sqldata = array (serialize($session_data), $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']);
if (!odbc_execute($stmt, $sqldata)) {
    $stmt = odbc_prepare($conn,
     "INSERT INTO sessions (id, data) VALUES(?, ?)");
    if (!odbc_execute($stmt, $sqldata)) {
        /* Something went wrong.. */
    }
}
?>

Answer 2

If you want to create a SQL query from your array, this might help:

// Sample array
$array = array(
             'key1' => 'value1',
             'key2' => 'value2'
             ...
             'key10' => 'value10'
         );

// Get and escape the keys
$keys = array_map('mysql_real_escape_string', array_keys($array));
// Escape the values
$array = array_map('mysql_real_escape_string', $array);
// Build query
$query = "INSERT INTO table(`".implode('`, `', $keys)."`) VALUES('".implode("', '", $array)."')";

mysql_query($query);

In this case, the query would look something like this:

INSERT INTO
    table(`key1`, `key2` ... `key10`)
VALUES
    ('value1', 'value2' ... 'value10')

---

If you have a multidimensional array (an array of arrays) you can create a query as follows:

// Sample multidimensional array
$array = array(
             array('key1' => 'value1', 'key2' => 'value2'),
             array('key1' => 'value3', 'key2' => 'value4'),
             array('key1' => 'value5', 'key2' => 'value6')
         );

// Get and escape the keys
$keys = array_map('mysql_real_escape_string', array_keys(current($array)));
// Array to store values for the query
$values = array();
// Loop every row and insert into $values array
foreach($array as $row) {
    // Escape all items
    array_map('mysql_real_escape_string', $row);
    $values[] = "('".implode("', '", $row)."')";
}

$query = "INSERT INTO table(`".implode('`, `', $keys)."`) VALUES ".implode(', ', $values);

mysql_query($query);

And in this case, the resulting query would be something like this:

INSERT INTO
    table(`key1`, `key2`)
VALUES
    ('value1', 'value2'),
    ('value3', 'value4'),
    ('value5', 'value6')

Now only thing you have to worry about is creating the corresponding columns to the database.

Answer 3

Serialize the data and write it to a single field in one table. Then to retrieve the data unserialize it and you are left with an array.

<?php
$array = array("hello", "world");
$serialized = serialize($array);

// -> Then write $serialized to database
?>

To retrieve

<?php      
// -> First Get $serialized from database

$array = unserialize($serialized);
?>