CodeIgniter insert multidimensional array to database table as separate rows

Question

saving post value to an array.

$data2 = array(
  'invoice_id' =>($id),
  'order_id' => $this->input->post('order_id'),
  'invoiceitems_servicetype' =>$this->input->post('type'),
  'invoiceitems_quantity' => $this->input->post('quantity'),
  'invoiceitems_unitprice' => $this->input->post('rate'),
  'invoiceitems_notes' => $this->input->post('description')
      );

 $this->db->insert('abc_invoiceitems', $data2);

print_r($data2);

Array Structure.

Array
(
    [invoice_id] => 21
    [order_id] => 1
    [invoiceitems_servicetype] => Array
        (
            [0] => Order
            [1] => Miscellaneous
            [2] => Order
        )

    [invoiceitems_quantity] => Array
        (
            [0] => 5
            [1] => 64
            [2] => 88
        )

    [invoiceitems_unitprice] => Array
        (
            [0] =>  5
            [1] =>  6
            [2] =>  8
        )

    [invoiceitems_notes] => Array
        (
            [0] => test Data1
            [1] => test Data2
            [2] => test Data3
        )

)

Insert array values to database table.

TABLE NAME --- abc_invoiceitems 
 +------------+----------+--------------------------+-----------------------+------------------------+--------------------+
 | invoice_id | order_id | invoiceitems_servicetype | invoiceitems_quantity | invoiceitems_unitprice | invoiceitems_notes |
 +------------+----------+--------------------------+-----------------------+------------------------+--------------------+

I got this following error and the error is :

the values are returning as array.

INSERT INTO abc_invoiceitems ( invoice_id , order_id , invoiceitems_servicetype , invoiceitems_quantity , invoiceitems_unitprice , invoiceitems_notes ) VALUES ('21', '1', Array, Array, Array, Array)

Answer 1

Fetch post values:

$temp =count($this->input->post('type'));//counting number of row's
$type= $this->input->post('type');
$quantity = $this->input->post('quantity');
$rate = $this->input->post('rate');
$description = $this->input->post('description');

Loop through Key values:

for($i=0; $i<$temp;$i++){
  $data2 = array(
  'invoice_id' =>($id),
  'order_id' => $this->input->post('order_id'),
  'invoiceitems_servicetype' =>$type[$i],
  'invoiceitems_quantity' => $quantity[$i],
  'invoiceitems_unitprice' => $rate[$i],
  'invoiceitems_notes' => $description[$i]
      );
   $this->db->insert('abc_invoiceitems', $data2);
  }

Answer 2

How about turning the arrays into serialized strings?

$data2 = array(
    'invoice_id' =>($id),
    'order_id' => $this->input->post('order_id'),
    'invoiceitems_servicetype' => serialize($this->input->post('type')),
    'invoiceitems_quantity' => serialize($this->input->post('quantity')),
    'invoiceitems_unitprice' => serialize($this->input->post('rate')),
    'invoiceitems_notes' => serialize($this->input->post('description'))
);

$this->db->insert('abc_invoiceitems', $data2);

When you want to pull the data back out of the database, you can unserialize the strings.