Here's what i basically want to do :

A user, in this case a teacher, by selecting an appropriate option to be able to update data concerning his students absencies reports.

Here's what my table for the students' absencies looks like (nevermind the greek)




And here's what my browser shows up (yes thats in greek too but you'll get the idea):



Here's my code :

if ($teacherclass=="e") // if teacher selects the EDIT option from a dropdown menu
{
include ("config.php"); // just plain connecting to the database
$con=mysql_connect($dbhost,$dbuser,$dbpass)
or die("Cannot connect to database");
mysql_select_db('dbusers');
mysql_query("set names utf8;"); //


echo "<br>Your class is :";

$myclass= $_SESSION['myclass']['class']; // That's a session started when the user logged in with his class.

echo $myclass; //e.g. B1
echo "<br>";
echo "<br>";


$query = "SELECT * FROM absencies WHERE class = '$myclass' " ; //shows all students that are in the same class as the teacher/user is
$result = mysql_query($query);



while ($row= mysql_fetch_array($result)){


echo "<table width=800 border=1 cellpading=1>
<tr>
<td><b>Real name:</b></td>
<td>".$row['realname']."</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td> Unjustified absecnies of Year 1 , Semester 1 :</td>
<td>".$row['A1a']."</td>
<td>

<form action='absencies.php' method='POST' accept-charset='UTF-8'>

<input type='hidden' name='submitted' value=1>

<input type='text' name='A1a'>
<input type='submit' name='submit' value='Edit'></td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td>Justified absencies of Year 1, Semester 1 :</td>
<td>". $row['A1d']."</td>
<td><input type='text' name='A1d'><input type='submit' name='submit' value='Edit'></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>unjustified absencies of Year 1, semester 2:</td>
<td>".$row['A2a']."</td>
<td><input type='text' name='A2a'><input type='submit' name='submit' value='Edit'></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Justified absencies of Year 1 , semester 2:</td>
<td>".$row['A2d']."</td>
<td><input type='text' name='A2d'><input type='submit' name='submit' value='Edit'></td>
</tr>



etc. for all semesters


...

</table>





if ($_POST['submitted']==1) {

// THIS WHERE I SHOULD enterMY queries *update" etc.


}



}
}

...
And your problem is !???

My problem IS HOW TO UPDATE the fields withouf UPDATING all of them but one at a time.

Ok I used the loop to show the students status however i dont want to get a loop updating every single student. But just the one i choose.

Thanks

Then you need to tell the db which row you want to update:

update tblStudents
set field1='x', field2='y', field3='z'
where studentId='$student_being_edited'

So, you design a screen where the teacher can edit each fields.
When the page is acessed, you get the student id from the url, do a SELECT query to load it's values, and display them in each fields of the page form.

When the teacher click the submit button, your target page extract the values from the POST (with the student id), and send the UPDATE query like up there.

Thanks !!!