Re: Using an array(-ish) in SQL queries

-------------- Original message ---------------------- From: -{ Rene Brehmer }- <metalbunny@metalbunny.net> > Task at hand: deleting or selecting (same difference) several numbers of > records using only 1 query. > > My first version simply looped through all the ticked off IDs and ran a > single query for each delete routine. I've still not suceeded in getting > the delete queries to work on multiple tables at once, despite the column > names being the same. But besides this: Multi-table deletes are new to mySQL 4.0, so if you are running a 3.x release they won't work. http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/DELETE.html > > My current version generates, for multi-select cases, queries like this: > > DELETE FROM the_table WHERE ID='1' OR > ID='2' OR ID='3' OR > ID`='4' OR > ID='5' OR > ID='6' > > or similar with the SELECT statement. [snip lots of stuff] > DELETE FROM the_table WHERE ID ISIN(1,2,3,4,5,6) use IN http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/Comparison_Operators.html#IDX1268 If you know all the values in the array are escaped and safe you can just use implode() to make the list for IN $string = implode("','",$array); $sql = "SELECT FROM $table WHERE col_name IN('$string')"; Notice I added single quotes around the string, that is because they will be missing since implode only sticks the string between array elements. However, you'd need a join that makes sense for a multi-table delete. I don't know if it will work with a union, I have never tried, maybe somone else will chime in.