PHP and MySQL

Hi all, I have a few questions about PHP and databases : - how do you insert a character string into a database when it is stored in an array ? For example I have the name of a person in an array called "$name" and when I insert it into the field "name" in my table, I get a field with "array" written in it. - I have a form, where users fill in several pieces of information (login, forename, lastname, age, etc ...). When I submit the form, I get the following error : "Unknown column 'foo' in 'field list' " where foo is the information that was typed in the form in the field login for example. Has anyone encountered such problem before ?? Laurent Vanstaen