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Why do you want to do that? &nbsp;How are you going to use it?
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Here's the dilemma: You've got some network tools that are &quot;fed&quot; 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 &quot;connect the dots.&quot; 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 &quot;submit,&quot; 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 &quot;save&quot; 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 &quot;selected&quot; 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 &quot;selected&quot; options within the pulldown? 
 
I'm telling ya... 
 
<a href="https://filedb.experts-exchange.com/incoming/2014/12_w49/885753/screenshot.png" target="_blank" title="screenshot (124 KB)"><img alt="screenshot" class="file-block lazyload" style="max-width: 800px;" data-src="https://filedb.experts-exchange.com/incoming/2014/12_w49/800_885753/screenshot.png" /></a>
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screenshot.png

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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...?
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@ltpitt: 
<blockquote>
Please be clearer with your request (a little more history about what's going on and what you want to obtain). 
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No kidding! &nbsp;Or maybe <a href="https://www.experts-exchange.com/Web_Development/Web_Languages-Standards/PHP/A_7830-A-Quick-Tour-of-Test-Driven-Development.html" rel="ugc">a test data set</a> so we can simulate the issues!
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Wow! 
 
I'm glad I've posted so I've detonated such a great link sharing! 
 
Thanks, Ray!
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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 &quot;test data&quot; other than the insert statement I referenced in my first post: &quot;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')&quot; 
 
The thing I wanted to do was programmatically reduce the insert statement to &quot;actor_id, actor_display_name, posted_time&quot; geo_coords_lat, geo_coords_lon, location_name, session_id.&quot; I did by using this code: 
 

<pre><code class="code-10 nolinks" id="code-8267435">function table_fields($tool_id) {
	
	$statement=&quot;&quot;;
	$stage_one=&quot;&quot;;
	$stage_two=&quot;&quot;;
	$stage_three=&quot;&quot;;
	$array=&quot;&quot;;

	global $mysqli;
		
	$sql=&quot;select * from preferences where email ='$_SESSION[email]' and tool_id='$tool_id'&quot;;
		if(!$query=$mysqli-&gt;query($sql))
		{
			$err = &quot;your login function didn't work because of...&quot;;
			$err .=$mysqli-&gt;errno.': '.$mysqli-&gt;error;
			trigger_error($err, E_USER_WARNING);
		}
		
		$count=mysqli_num_rows($query);
		
		if($count&gt;0)
		{
			$row=$query-&gt;fetch_object();
			$statement=$row-&gt;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 &quot;insert into table_name&quot; verbiage
			$stage_three = ltrim($stage_two, &quot;(&quot;); //trims the &quot;(&quot; 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;
		}
	}
</code></pre>
 
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!
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<div class="content wysiwyg-content">
Here's an insert statement: 
 
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') 
 
I want to isolate the values that are listed after &quot;twitter_test&quot; and convert them into an array. In other words, I want to grab everything between the first set of parenthesis and then store &quot;&nbsp;actor_id, actor_display, posted_time, geo_coords_lat, geo_coords_lon, location_name and session_id as array[0], array[1] and so on. 
 
How could I do that? 
 
I started working with preg_split and some other things, but I figured it was time to bring the ninjas to the table. 
 
What do you think?
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Here's an insert statement:

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')

I want to isolate the values that are listed after "twitter_test" and convert them into an array. In other words, I want to grab everything between the first set of parenthesis and then store " actor_id, actor_display, posted_time, geo_coords_lat, geo_coords_lon, location_name and session_id as array[0], array[1] and so on. 

How could I do that?

I started working with preg_split and some other things, but I figured it was time to bring the ninjas to the table. 

What do you think?

How could I break up this string?

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