Constructing while statement for storing dynamically generated php form questions in MySQL database?

Question

I am working on a simple survey where users are presented with a website with a number of questions in a form.

The questions are stored in a database and not "hardcoded" because in the future I'd like to be able to present different users with different questions or maybe even randomize which questions are shown.

My database structure for questions looks like this:

table: questions
id  q_eng
1   Satisfied?
2   Happy?
3   Sad?

And this is how I would like to store the answers:

table: answers
id  timestamp   question    answer
1   2016-02-17  Satisfied?  yes
2   2016-02-17  Happy?      yes
3   2016-02-17  Sad?        no
4   2016-02-18  Satisfied?  no
5   2016-02-18  Happy?      no
6   2016-02-18  Sad?        yes

I am using my stored questions to populate my form in php, like this:

$sql = "SELECT DISTINCT q_eng FROM questions WHERE id = 1";
$result = $con->query($sql);
$row = mysqli_fetch_array($result);

echo "<div class='header'>". $row['q_eng'] ."</div>";
echo "<div class='questions'>";
    echo "<input type='radio' name='". $row['q_eng'] ."' id='satisfied_yes value='yes'>";
    echo "<label for='satisfies_yes'><img src='satisfied.png' width='15%'></label>";
    echo "<input type='radio' name='". $row['q_eng'] ."' id='satisfied_no' value='no'>";
    echo "<label for='satisfied_no'><img src='notsatisfied.png' width='15%'></label>";
echo "</div>";  

// code repeating for question 2 and question 3 using id = 2 and id = 3.

The trouble I am now having is constructing the correct while loop for saving the different questions and answers.

// checks if form has been submitted    
if (!empty($_POST)) {

    // fetches distinct questions from database
    $sql = "SELECT DISTINCT q_eng FROM questions";
    $result = $con->query($sql);

    // starts loop for each distinct value to save distinct values
    while ($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result)) {

        // tries to save the value for each question (yes or no)
        // this is not working, maybe due to some syntax error.
        // echoing $answer displays nothing.
        $answer = $_POST[$row["q_eng"]];

        // saves the values. seems to be working fine
        $query = "INSERT INTO answers VALUES ('',now(),'".$row['q_eng']."','$answer')";
        mysqli_query($con,$query);

    }
}

Now, I am 99% sure my error is in this line, but I have not been able to work out whether there's some simple syntax error or whether I am trying to do something that's not supposed to work?

$answer = $_POST[$row["q_eng"]];

Any help you can offer is much appreciated.

Fuujin · Accepted Answer · 2016-02-17 13:29:13Z

1

you need to change your insert statement:

$query = "INSERT INTO answers VALUES ('',now(),'".$row['q_eng']."','" . $answer . "')";

Sorry, i just saw you don't have a <form> Tag in your code. Is $_POST even filled?

answered Feb 17, 2016 at 13:29

Fuujin

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2 Comments

Morten Over a year ago

Sorry, I do have a <form> in my code, I just tried to post only the parts I thought relevant. There must be something in post since my INSERT that checks if $_POST is filled does work and does insert data. The problem is more likely that $answer is not updated with the $_post value as it saves with "0" in the database now.

Fuujin Over a year ago

I would also recommend that you use the question id to identify a question and not the question itself. There might be problems with that

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