PHP: How to grab an array checkbox value and then insert each individual result into a database query?

Question

I have a form that has a checkbox list generated dynamically: name="cursoID[]" Each value correspond to cursoID ( $curso['cursoID'] ), which is a value taken from a mySQL SELECT query that shows me a list of items IDs.

The user may select N number of items, and I need to take each one of those (ie. $cursoID = $_POST['cursoID']; ) in order to save them into an INSERT query.

In the form, I generate each item with a while loop:

<?php 
$conectar = mysqli_connect(HOST, USER, PASS, DATABASE);
$query = "  SELECT cursoID, nombreCurso, cursoFechaInicio, modalidadCurso, estadoCurso
FROM cursos 
WHERE estadoCurso='abierto'";

$buscarCurso = mysqli_query($conectar,$query);

echo '<div class="checkbox">';
while ($curso=mysqli_fetch_assoc($buscarCurso)) {
echo '<input type="checkbox" name="cursoID[]" value="'.$curso['cursoID'].'">'.$curso['nombreCurso'];
}
echo '</div>'; 

?>

My database consultation in order to insert that field is a simple select:

INSERT INTO cursosUsuarios 
                (userID, cursoID) 
              VALUES 
                ('$userID', '$cursoID')

I have no issues with $userID, as is a single value.

How may I use $cursoID = $_POST['cursoID'] to add it to the database? I've been reading some other questions (like this one , or this other one ), but couldn't manage to apply it to my case, as I don't know how would I insert it into the database.

Answer 1

I dk how to use mysqli_* so i'll write in PDO. If i could understand correctly this's what u need.

ps: Security ignored.

$cursors = $_POST['cursorID'];
$user = $_POST['user'];

foreach ($cursors as $cursor) {

        $query = $DB->prepare('INSERT INTO table (user, cursor) VALUES (:user, :cursor)');

        $query->bindValue(':user', $user, PDO::PARAM_INT);
        $query->bindValue(':cursor', $cursor, PDO::PARAM_INT);

        $query->execute();
}

Answer 2

There's two main ways you can insert a variable amount of data into your database:

• Build your query dynamically (if you have many columns, and you don't know how many you'll update)

Like so:

$fields = array();
$values = array();

$fields[] = 'field1';
$fields[] = 'field2';
...

$values[] = 1;
$values[] = 2;
...

$query = 'INSERT INTO table (' . implode(', ', $fields) . ') VALUES (' . implode(',', $values) . ')';

// Execute $query

or:

• Add the individual items in separate queries, that you repeat over and over (if you need to fill a variable amount of rows).

Like so (if your checkboxes are named "cursoID[]", the corresponding POST variable will be an array, and you can use anything that'll work with arrays):

$userID_int = (int)$userID;
foreach ($_POST['cursoID'] as $singleID) {
    $singleID_int = (int)$singleID;
    // Execute: INSERT INTO cursosUsuarios (userID, cursoID) VALUES ('$userID_int', '$singleID_int')
}

However, be very careful - at the moment, your code is vulnerable to SQL injections (for example, if $_POST['cursoID'] is set to something like

'; DROP DATABASE X

you might - depending on your configuration - allow someone to do a lot of nasty stuff, ranging from bypassing your logins to removing your database. As such, I would recommend taking a step back and looking into how you can parameterize your queries, so you don't have to worry about a hostile visitor injecting data in your SQL query. See, for example, this answer .