Multiple entries in SQL?

Question

How can I store multiple entries in SQL in one field? For example in field phone I want to let users enter more phones like private, home, business etc.

Any hellp on how can I create trat form and how to store data in sql?

I guess I can store them using serialize() function in php but how to make a form and collect that information?

Form:

Home Phone: 321321333
Other: 333213213
Add Another

Also I would like to make that they can edit name field so if users want to put Home Tel instead of Home Phone or Pager instead Other.

ANY HELP? PLEASE?

Answer 1

You do not store multiple values in a single field. You need a normalized structure that will allow for multiple phone numbers. A 1:n relationship would be appropriate here.

user (userId PK)
userPhone (userId FK, phoneType, phoneNumber (userId, phoneType PK))

Answer 2

You can use json_encode() and json_decode() for saving and accessing data.

For saving.

$phone_number = array("Home Phone" => "321321333", "Other" => "333213213");
$encoded = json_encode($phone_number);

For accessing.

$result = mysqli_fetch_assoc($sql);
$decoded = json_decode( $result['phone_number_mysql_fields'] );

You can use the PHP serialize function to store arrays and objects in MySQL