* * * HELP!! My UPDATE Doesn't! * * *

Yes, that is the effect of doing an UPDATE query without a WHERE-clause. It will update all rows with the same value, since there is no condition specified.

The code SELECTs all the rows from table 'books'. Then it loops through all the rows in that table.

For each iteration it runs an UPDATE query which sets the catalog to the value in $ct1[$ix1] for all rows in the table.

So, the expected result would be that after a run, all the rows have the same catalog value. I've checked, and they do...

Can you provide more test data? I don't have any issues with updates, it always updates.

How about the echo statements... first you echo the new value in $cat, then after the update you echo $booknumber and $catalog which are the old values.

The code doesn't really do what you want it to do, if you just want to test the different catalog values with all the rows... hang on, I'm writing some code for you

<?php

include('misc.inc');

$connection = mysql_connect($host,$user,$password) or die ('No connection');
$db = mysql_select_db($database,$connection) or die ('No selection');

$ct1 = array('Kunst','Kinderbüchen','Literatur','Geograp hy','Photography');

echo "<h2>Update all the rows at once</h2>";
foreach($ct1 as $cat)
{

echo "<h3>New catalog: " . $cat . "</h3>";
echo "<p>";

$query = "UPDATE books SET catalog='$cat'";
$result = mysql_query($query) or die('mysql error ' . mysql_error() . ' in query ' . $query);

echo "<strong>All rows updated.</strong>";
echo "</p>";

}

echo "<h2>Update the rows one by one</h2>";
foreach($ct1 as $cat)
{

echo "<h3>New catalog: " . $cat . "</h3>";
echo "<p>";

$query = "SELECT * FROM books ORDER BY booknumber";
$result = mysql_query($query) or die('mysql error gevonden ' . mysql_error() . ' in query ' . $query);

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
$booknumber = $row["booknumber"];
$catalog = $row["catalog"];
$query2 = "UPDATE books SET catalog='$cat' WHERE booknumber='$booknumber'";
mysql_query($query2) or die('mysql error ' . mysql_error() . ' in query ' . $query2);
echo "Booknumber: " . $booknumber . "<br/>";
echo "Old catalog: " . $catalog . "<br/>";
}

echo "<strong>All rows updated.</strong>";
echo "</p>";

}

exit;

?>

Hi Manfred,

Thanks for your contribution. It taught me some new things. But your code didn't achieve what I wanted. At the end all rows had the same category, the last one - Photography.
Where I want to be is as follows:
Booknumber: 1
Old catalog: Kunst
Booknumber: 2
Old catalog: Kinderbüchen
Booknumber: 4
Old catalog: Literatur
Booknumber: 5
Old catalog: Geography
Booknumber: 1234
Old catalog: Photography
Booknumber: 123456
Old catalog: Kunst
Booknumber: 999999
Old catalog: Kinderbüchen

Regards,

Mike

Yeah, I guess it's this part that made me confused then haha

You got it working already or you still need some code?