How could I break up this string?

Why do you want to do that?  How are you going to use it?

Here's the dilemma: You've got some network tools that are "fed" by CSV files from around a region. The challenge is that some of these regions have different naming conventions so when they go to upload their CSV file, there's a disconnect between the data in the CSV file and the table they're attempting to upload their data to.

To solve that, I built an app that gives the user the chance to "connect the dots." You can see it on the attached screenshot. The column headings as they appear on their CSV file are listed and then to the right of each field is a pulldown menu that has all of the fields in the table that file is getting ready to be uploaded to. Once they make their selections and click on "submit," an insert statement is crafted based on their selection and all is well.

I wanted to create a dynamic where they can login and choose from a list of tools they've used in the past and they've saved their preferences. If they choose to "save" their work, the insert statement they built on the fly is saved and that's what I've got here:

insert into twitter_test(actor_id,actor_display_name,posted_time,geo_coords_lat,geo_coords_lon,location_name, session_id) VALUES ('actor_id','actor_display_name','posted_time','lat','lon','location_name', 'bruce@brucegust.com')

The attached screen shot is where I want to list every one of their saved preferences as a "selected" option within the list of possibilities. And that brings us to where I'm at now: How can I break up the first part of the saved insert statement, save the values as an array and then display them as "selected" options within the pulldown?

I'm telling ya...

What is the point of having the column names in an array? Don't see a reason for that.

What are you using - PDO, MySQLi...?

@ltpitt:

Please be clearer with your request (a little more history about what's going on and what you want to obtain).

No kidding!  Or maybe a test data set so we can simulate the issues!

Wow!

I'm glad I've posted so I've detonated such a great link sharing!

Thanks, Ray!

OK, guys, I got it to work.

I apologize if I didn't provide enough info for my dilemma to make sense. There's really no "test data" other than the insert statement I referenced in my first post: "insert into twitter_test(actor_id,actor_display_name,posted_time,geo_coords_lat,geo_coords_lon,location_name, session_id) VALUES ('actor_id','actor_display_name','posted_time','lat','lon','location_name', 'bruce@brucegust.com')"

The thing I wanted to do was programmatically reduce the insert statement to "actor_id, actor_display_name, posted_time" geo_coords_lat, geo_coords_lon, location_name, session_id." I did by using this code:

function table_fields($tool_id) {
	
	$statement="";
	$stage_one="";
	$stage_two="";
	$stage_three="";
	$array="";

	global $mysqli;
		
	$sql="select * from preferences where email ='$_SESSION[email]' and tool_id='$tool_id'";
		if(!$query=$mysqli->query($sql))
		{
			$err = "your login function didn't work because of...";
			$err .=$mysqli->errno.': '.$mysqli->error;
			trigger_error($err, E_USER_WARNING);
		}
		
		$count=mysqli_num_rows($query);
		
		if($count>0)
		{
			$row=$query->fetch_object();
			$statement=$row->tool_fields;
			//here's where I'm breaking the insert statement down into a manageable array	
			$stage_one = strstr($statement, ')', true); //shows everything to the left of the second parenthesis
			$stage_two=strstr($stage_one, '('); //gets rid of the "insert into table_name" verbiage
			$stage_three = ltrim($stage_two, "("); //trims the "(" from the left end of the string
			$array = explode(',', $stage_three); //breaks up the remaining string into an array based on the comma between each value
			return $array;
		}
	}

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I just used what you see at $stage_one, $stage_two etc to the insert statement string incrementally until I had what I needed.

Thanks again for looking it and weighing in with your wisdom!