How can I store values from a nested/multidimensional array in a MySQL database?

Question

My array looks like this:

Array  
(  
[0] => Array
    (
        [created_at] => Sat Jun 25 21:22:20 +0000 2011
        [text] => i'm eating apple
        [sender] => Array
            (
                [name] => mark o
                [created_at] => Wed May 28 18:21:03 +0000 2008
            )
        [recipient] => Array
            (
                [created_at] => Mon Jun 21 19:48:50 +0000 2010
                [screen_name] => playassassin
            )
        [sender_screen_name] => mark
        [recipient_screen_name] => james
    )

[1] => Array
    (
        [created_at] => Mon Jun 20 10:52:37 +0000 2011
        [text] => My bday in 5 minutes
        [sender] => Array
            (
                [name] => mark o
                [created_at] => Wed May 28 18:21:03 +0000 2008
            )
        [recipient] => Array
            (
                [created_at] => Mon Jun 21 19:48:50 +0000 2010
                [screen_name] => james
            )
        [sender_screen_name] => mark
        [recipient_screen_name] => james
    )  
)  

This is a simplified version of a direct message feed from the Twitter API. I will be requesting the latest DMs every X minutes using PHP and the twitter-async library, and then I want to store parts of the array in a database table. Each DM should be stored in its own row.
The table the data will be stored in:

CREATE TABLE `dms` (
    `postid` INT(12) NOT NULL,
    `text` VARCHAR(140) NOT NULL COLLATE 'utf8_unicode_ci',
    `sender` VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL COLLATE 'utf8_unicode_ci',
    `sender_id` VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL COLLATE 'utf8_unicode_ci',
    `date_created` DATETIME NOT NULL
)

I really don't know how to go about doing this and would greatly appreciate some help.

If it simplifies things at all, I only need to pull values from the second layer in. Also, I don't know how many rows I'll be adding.

---

I've been messing around, and this code almost does what I need:

foreach ( $adms as $dm ) {

    foreach ( $dm as $key => $value ) {
        $q = "INSERT INTO dms SET text = '{$value}'";
        mysqli_query ($dbc, $q) or trigger_error("Query: $q\n<br />MySQL Error: " . mysqli_error($dbc));
  }

}

Of course, that just stores each second level value in a new row in the "text" column. If you can help me complete it to do what I've asked, I'll mark your answer.

Answer 1

Well...you are only entering one value.

Try something like this: -

foreach ( $adms as $dm ) {
    $q = "INSERT INTO dms(text, sender, sender_id, date_created) values('".$dm["text"]."', '".$dm["sender_screen_name"]."', '".$dm["sender"]["name"]."', now())";
    mysqli_query ($dbc, $q) or trigger_error("Query: $q\n<br />MySQL Error: " . mysqli_error($dbc));
}

Answer 2

Define a parent_postid, so insert the parent, get it's id and insert sub records with that id in the parent_postid

CREATE TABLE `dms` (
    `postid` INT(12) NOT NULL,
    `parent_postid` INT(12) NOT NULL,
    `text` VARCHAR(140) NOT NULL COLLATE 'utf8_unicode_ci',
    `sender` VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL COLLATE 'utf8_unicode_ci',
    `sender_id` VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL COLLATE 'utf8_unicode_ci',
    `date_created` DATETIME NOT NULL
)

this can be done to many n-levels... and each sub can be a parent and so on...

Answer 3

What you want to achieve is also called shredding, eg xml shredding. The basic idea is to imagine your array as a tree. Once you have the information as a tree, you can store every node in a linear table. Along with every node (ie contained info) you store its parent/child relationship and whatever you need to restore your initial structure.