How to get and store 2 values in one column in database? Python Flask SQLAlchemy

Question

I am trying to store 2 values in one column and I do not know if it's even possible.

It looks like that. I get data from HTML form like below. It works.

<form action="{{url_for('newBook')}}" method = 'POST'>
    <p>Choose Language</p>
        <select name=language method="GET" action="/" size="2" multiple> 
        {% for language in languages %}
        <option value= "{{language}}" SELECTED>{{ language }}</option>"
        {% endfor %}
        </select>
    <p><input type='submit' value='Create'></p>
    <a href = "{{url_for('showBooks') }}">Cancel</a>
</form>

But it only stored one value in database.

class Book(Base):
    __tablename__ = 'Book'
    language = Column(String(30)) # how change that?

This is how I get this one value.

languages = ['Polish', 'English']
@app.route('/books/new/', methods=['GET', 'POST'])
def newBook():
    if request.method == 'POST':
        newBook = Book(language = request.form['language']) # how change that?
        session.add(newBook)
        session.commit()
        flash("New Book Added!")
        return redirect(url_for('showBooks'))
    else:
        return render_template('newBook.html', languages=languages)

That code works but I get only English or Polish value. But I want that I can store sometimes both values. I know that is possible to use request.form.getlist but I didn't find a working example and how to store it in a database.

Answer 1

To retrieve multiple values from a select element, you can change your code to this:

languages = ['Polish', 'English']
@app.route('/books/new/', methods=['GET', 'POST'])
def newBook():
    if request.method == 'POST':
        newBooks = request.form.getlist('language') # this returns a list of values
        session.add(newBook)
        session.commit()
        flash("New Book Added!")
        return redirect(url_for('showBooks'))
    else:
        return render_template('newBook.html', languages=languages)

As for storing them in a database, you can create another table that stores the languages and link back to your Book table using a foreign key.