Writing to MySQL from a PHP array in a for loop

Question

I'm having a bit of trouble writing the contents of a PHP array to rows of a column in a MySQL table. Instead of updating each time through the loop, the same things gets inserted into the database again and again.

Here's the code ($code is an array of characters and $code_length is its length):

for ($counter = 0; $counter < $this->code_length; $counter++){
    $query = "INSERT INTO characters VALUES ('$this->code[$counter]')";
    mysql_query($query, $db_server);
}

If I execute it like this, it just puts the first element of $code on every line of the table. However, if I just change it to use a reference to the array element outside the SQL query instead it works. For example:

for ($counter = 0; $counter < $this->code_length; $counter++){
    $code_element = $this->code[$counter];
    $query = "INSERT INTO characters VALUES ('$code_element')";
    mysql_query($query, $db_server);
}

works fine and puts each new element of $code in a new row.

Can anyone see what I'm doing wrong in the first example or can you just not refer to array elements in that way in MySQL queries?

Please, don't use mysql_* functions in new code. They are no longer maintained and are officially deprecated. See the red box? Learn about prepared statements instead, and use PDO or MySQLi - this article will help you decide which. — Kermit
– Kermit, Commented Jun 19, 2013 at 14:56
Thanks, I hadn't looked at the docs for that - just learning from a (clearly out of date) book. I'll update to mysqli. — Tim Barclay
– Tim Barclay, Commented Jun 19, 2013 at 15:18

Yogesh Suthar · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-19 14:55:25Z

1

You have to use {} for using array in query

$query = "INSERT INTO characters VALUES ('{$this->code[$counter]}')";

answered Jun 19, 2013 at 14:55

Yogesh Suthar

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