Codeigniter Insert Multiple Rows in SQL - mysql

Question

I am fresh to Codeigniter. I have a form which looks something like this.
<tr>
<td><input type="text" name="Name[0]" value=""></td>
<td><input type="text" name="Address[0]" value=""><br></td>
<td><input type="text" name="Age[0]" value=""></td>
<td><input type="text" name="Email[0]" value=""></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><input type="text" name="Name[1]" value=""></td>
<td><input type="text" name="Address[1]" value=""><br></td>
<td><input type="text" name="Age[1]" value=""></td>
<td><input type="text" name="Email[1]" value=""></td>
</tr>
There may be from 0 to n rows, usually 5 to 10 rows. How do I insert them in SQL? Is this possible with Codeigniter or should I use a native PHP script?
$name=$_POST['Name'];
$address=$_POST['Address'];
$age=$_POST['Age'];
$email=$_POST['Email'];
$count = count($_POST['Name']);
for($i=0; $i<$count; $i++) {
$data = array(
'name' => $name[$i],
'address' => $address[$i],
'age' => $age[$i],
'email' => $email[$i],
);
$this->db->insert('mytable', $data);
}
I did this. It works. But the solution seems inelegant.
kevtrout's answer looks better but is currently throwing a lot of errors.
Is there any way to insert all data at one go?

Answer 1

Multiple insert/ batch insert is now supported by codeigniter. It will firing one query rather than firing too many queries.
$data =array();
for($i=0; $i<$count; $i++) {
$data[$i] = array(
'name' => $name[$i],
'address' => $address[$i],
'age' => $age[$i],
'email' => $email[$i],
);
}
$this->db->insert_batch('mytable', $data);

Answer 2

Make your form like this:
<tr>
<td><input type="text" name="user[0][name]" value=""></td>
<td><input type="text" name="user[0][address]" value=""><br></td>
<td><input type="text" name="user[0][age]" value=""></td>
<td><input type="text" name="user[0][email]" value=""></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><input type="text" name="user[1][name]" value=""></td>
<td><input type="text" name="user[1][address]" value=""><br></td>
<td><input type="text" name="user[1][age]" value=""></td>
<td><input type="text" name="user[1][email]" value=""></td>
</tr>
Then you can simply do:
foreach($_POST['user'] as $user)
{
$this->db->insert('mytable', $user);
}

Answer 3

The form you show will create a $_POST array with indexes of name, address, age, and email. Each of these will contain the n number of "rows" your form provides. For example:
array(
'name' => array('First Name','Second Name'),
'address' => array ('First Address','Second Address'),
'age' => array('First Age','Second Age'),
'email' => array('First Email', 'Second Email')
);
You may want to rearrange that array into one where each index of the array is a "person". This will make inserting the information into your database simpler.
//subtract 1 from below to account for the assumed submit button
$number_of_rows = count($_POST)-1;
for($i=0;$i<$number_of_rows;$i++){
$person[]['name'] = $this->input->post('Name')[$i];
$person[]['address'] = $this->input->post('Address')[$i];
$person[]['age'] = $this->input->post('Age')[$i];
$person[]['email'] = $this->input->post('Email')[$i];
}
This will create something like this:
array(
0=>array('First Name','First Address','First Age','First Email'),
1=>array ('Second Name','Second Address','Second Age','Second Email')
);
Now you can use a loop to insert each person into the db.
for($y=0;$y<count($person);$y++){
$this->db->insert('mytable',$person[$y];
}