multiple fields for one piece of content

[danpoulton]

I am new to mysql, what i have now is a simple table which holds cheats,

id game game_url console console_url cheats

the cheats field holds mutliple cheats, what i am trying to create is 1 field = 1 cheat.

And also adding other things like saved games.

I can do all of the PHP, my question is how do i go about setting out and adding records to the table?

[ZABI]

i think you should dump your data in xml format in your field,
ie:
<cheat1>Some Cheat</cheat1>
<cheat2>Some Cheat</cheat2>
<cheat3>Some Cheat</cheat3>

and dump it in your mysql field

[danpoulton]

thanks, would i then read this data with php ,add html etc and echo?

[NogDog]

I would probably try to normalize the database design, likely creating a number of separate tables.

game
===================
ID (unsigned int, auto-increment, primary key)
game_name
game_url


console
===================
ID (unsigned int, auto-increment, primary key)
console_name
console_url


cheat
===================
ID (unsigned int, auto-increment, primary key)
game_id
console_id
cheat_text
(maybe a timestamp field?)

This way you avoid duplication of game and cosole data, while keeping each individual cheat as a separate, atomic data row.

[svidgen]

thanks, would i then read this data with php ,add html etc and echo?

I would suggest that each page that accesses or modifies your database data should perform actions in the following order:

1. parse GET and POST variables
2. create sanitized [and reduced] copies of [relevant] data
3. update/insert new data, preferably using built-in functions for your DMBS
4. select page-relevant data from the database
5. format the retrieved data by converting necessary characters to HTML, stripping out SCRIPT tags, padding with HTML, etc.
6. print/echo the combined HTML to the client