I need to be able to INSERT values into a db in the form of:

fieldx='$valuex', fieldy='$valuey'

instead of the standard:

(fieldx, fieldy) VALUES ('$valuex', '$valuey')

i swear i have done it before but cannot find anywhere that is has been done this way. does anyone know if it is possible or am i dreaming?

thanks alot!

I don't see anything in the mysql documentation about inserting with any syntax other than the standard form and I've never seen it done like that (doesn't mean it can't be done). Why is it that you need to be able to insert in the form you mentioned?

You can simply omit the fields list, but then you have to specify the value of every fields in the right order.
table:

create table demo(
  ikey integer not null,
  xcomment varchar(100),
  xuser varchar(100) not null,
  hpass varchar(255) not null,
  constraint pk_demo primary key (ikey)
);

and then:

insert into demo
(ikey, xcomment, xuser, hpass)
values
(1, null, 'tripy', 'ha350s');

is the same than

insert into demo
values
(1, null, 'tripy', 'ha350s');

Now, depending of your DB ,(I assume mysql here) I don't know how an auto_increment field would be handled.
Maybe you'd need to give a NULL value to respect the fields orders, I don't know.
I see that mysql allows the use of a keyword named DEFAULT, and it's probably what you'll need.
Given that ikey is with auto_increment

insert into demo
values
(DEFAULT, null, 'tripy', 'ha350s');

i have a form that lasts over about 4 pages, and i have been collecting the previous pages data into a single hidden input field in the form of field='value'. so it accumulated through the form resulting in the last one having all the info in it..

im not sure of any 'easier' way to do it, but then again, this way hasnt turned out as 'easy' as i had hoped.. lol

thanks tripy, thats a good idea, but you got any quick ideas of a way to strip the data block (which IS in order) of field names and '=' leaving only values?

ie turn this:

field1='asdfsd',field2='qwer',firld3='yuiop'

into this:

'asdfsd','qwer','yuiop'

PHP Code:

<?php 
$str="field1='asdfsd',field2='qwer',firld3='yuiop'"; 
$aryV=explode(',',$str); 
foreach($aryV as $k=>$v){ 
  list($f, $val)=explode('=',$v); 
  print "The value for field $f is $val\n"; 
}

Output of this script:

tmo@devp4:~/$ php 1.php 
The value for field field1 is 'asdfsd'
The value for field field2 is 'qwer'
The value for field firld3 is 'yuiop'
tmo@devp4:~/$

that looks good. ill give it a go now and let you know how it goes. cheers!

works great. thansk alot

You can actually use the syntax you were first looking for when inserting. And yes, it's in the MySQL manual. You do it like this:

INSERTO INTO your_table SET
   field1='value1',
   field2='value2',
   field3='value3',
   ...

Interesting...
Not sql92 compliant, but interesting....