php: more the one in a field

[lithium]

okay, i have a database with fields ID, USER and FRIENDS. the FRIENDS field has values like john,tom,mark,ben. i need a php code with which i could extract these seperatly and be able to delete or add friends. can you help me plz? :)

[Afro-Ninja]

ok first of all, do you know how to extract data regularly? If so then all you have to do is select from the friends field then do

$names = explode(',',$datafromfield);

that will separate all the friends into the array, so $names[0], $names[1], etc will each give you a name. If you want to add a friend you can simply add it onto the end by doing

array_push($names,'Phil');

then implode it back into a string and update the database with it

$datatoinsert = implode(",",$names);

However this really isn't the best method to do it, I would suggest setting up an additional table to resolve the friends to friends relationship.... What exactly do you need to accomplish with this? I'm afraid there isn't a simple 'php code' that will do all of this for you

[lithium]

this helped, thanx :) but i still don't get how can i delete one of the friends. lets say i've made a table
| $name[0] | click to delete
| $name[1] | click to delete
| $name[2] | click to delete
etc. how to make it work?

[henke37]

You want another table, you are storaging mutiple values in one field.

[lithium]

in that case i would need to give every user his own table, it would be much easyerto put these in one field

[henke37]

No, you would not have to give each user his own table, just fake it.
Add a field that specifies for who the record is.
So you will have sender and reciver.