I'm trying to copy the contents of one table to another whenever there is a deleted or updated row, and then remove the updated row from the originating table. I have two tables identical, one for active employees, and one for terminated employees. I need to do this with php, as triggers are not an option on this shared host. I have the script protected with a .htaccess blocking all IP's except for mine. I'm not that versed on php and could use some help. Here's the schema of the tables. One is called active_employees and the other is called termed_employees:

id_employees int(10) Not Null 
payroll_no varchar(10) NULL 
employee_name varchar(75) NULL 
Sex varchar(7) NULL 
nextel varchar(13) NULL 
ssNumber varchar(13) NULL 
BirthDate varchar(30) NULL 
Hire_Date varchar(30) NULL 
QuitDate varchar(30) NULL 
PayRate varchar(8) NULL 
street_address varchar(100) NULL 
City varchar(50) NULL 
state varchar(25) NULL 
zip_code varchar(10) NULL 
home_phone varchar(15) NULL 
cellphonenum varchar(15) NULL

What I'd like to do is whenever a value for QuitDate is entered into the active_employee table, it copies the entire row to the termed_employees table, and remove the row from the active_employees table. Or, before a row is deleted in the active_employees table, it exports a copy of the row to the termed_employees table. This way there is always an archived copy of the terminated or accidently deleted employees data on the database.

Thanks in advance.

I don't think there is a copy operation in SQL. Why not just first select the data from the employee table using the employee's ID whom are being deleted, insert the data into your other table and then run the deletion query.