How to store array data in MySQL database using PHP & MySQL?

I'm new to php and mysql and I'm trying to learn how to store the following array data from three different arrays friend[], hair_type[], hair_color[] using MySQL and PHP an example would be nice. Thanks

Here is the HTML code.

<input type="text" name="friend[]" id="friend[]" />

<select id="hair_type[]" name="hair_type[]">
    <option value="Hair Type" selected="selected">Hair Type</option>
    <option value="Straight">Straight</option>
    <option value="Curly">Curly</option>
    <option value="Wavey">Wavey</option>
    <option value="Bald">Bald</option>
</select>

<select id="hair_color[]" name="hair_color[]">
    <option value="Hair Color" selected="selected">Hair Color</option>
    <option value="Brown">开发者_JS百科Brown</option>
    <option value="Black">Black</option>
    <option value="Red">Red</option>
    <option value="Blonde">Blonde</option>
</select>





<input type="text" name="friend[]" id="friend[]" />

<select id="hair_type[]" name="hair_type[]">
    <option value="Hair Type" selected="selected">Hair Type</option>
    <option value="Straight">Straight</option>
    <option value="Curly">Curly</option>
    <option value="Wavey">Wavey</option>
    <option value="Bald">Bald</option>
</select>

<select id="hair_color[]" name="hair_color[]">
    <option value="Hair Color" selected="selected">Hair Color</option>
    <option value="Brown">Brown</option>
    <option value="Black">Black</option>
    <option value="Red">Red</option>
    <option value="Blonde">Blonde</option>
</select>

Here is the MySQL tables below.

CREATE TABLE friends_hair (
id INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
hair_id INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL, 
user_id INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL, 
PRIMARY KEY (id)
);


CREATE TABLE hair_types (
id INT UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
friend TEXT NOT NULL,
hair_type TEXT NOT NULL,
hair_color TEXT NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (id)
);

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Create a table for hair type, hair color, and friend.

Hair type and hair color each need a primary key of id, and a name field.

Friend needs a primary key of id, and fields of name, hair_type_id, and hair_color_id.

Make the values for hair type and hair color their respective id from the database.

When you submit the form, loop through the $_POST['friend'] array, insert into the friend database the friend name, hair type id, and hair color id.

Don't forget to sanitize the inputs. Check out mysql_real_escape_string() for an example of that.

I can make this more detailed if you need further help.

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assuming that you can only have one hair type and one hair colour per user then check the pastie for a simple answer: http://pastie.org/928039

let's face it you can't have wavey and straight hair at the same time now can you ? Colours might be different in which case it's a many to many so you need a user_hair_colour table user_hair_colour(user_id PK, hair_colour_id PK) :P

 select 
   u.*,
   hc.name as hair_colour_name,
   ht.name as hair_type_name
 from 
  users u
 inner join hair_colour hc on u.hair_colour_id = hc.hair_colour_id 
 inner join hair_type ht on u.hair_type_id = ht.hair_type_id 
 order by 
  u.username;

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you can use the Serialise function to store the array into mysql database, and to retrieve the values use Unserialise function.. PHP serialize function