> > > (got work to do during business hours) on the differences between
> > > UPDATE and INSERT.
> >
> >INSERT creates a new entry, update changes an existing ones. So you
> >cannot use INSERT to corect your data.
>
> Then it must work on a created field that has not been populated yet?
> It doesn't
> also create a field, does it?
INSERT inserts a new row. i.e. all of the fields for the table, using
default values where none are supplied. A row can't exist with
unpopulated fields, they would have values even if the value was NULL
(which should be read as value unknown)
> > > >This would give you an array with the genus in $name[0] and other part in
> > > >$name[1]
>
> ....... so $name[0] would have the current genus name, right?
In that example, yes.
> >>The following SQL query
> >>
> >>UPDATE species2 AS s LEFT JOIN sci_genera AS sg ON (sg.genus_name =
> >>LEFT(s.species_name, LOCATE(' ', s.species_name) - 1))
> >> SET s.generalID = sg.generalID;
> >>
> >>alters the contents of species2 to become
> >>
> >>ID species_name
> >>1 Quercus rubra
> >>2 Dalbergia nigra
> >>
> >>Assuming I understood your intent correctly, this should be the result
> >>you are after.
> >>This should fix your table. It does what you are trying with PHP, but
> >>using SQL only. With indices on the relevant fields it will probably be
> >>(much) faster too.
>
> Our messages got long enough (along with the abstraction of supper ;-) )
> that I forgot to mention that I tried to run it in a SQL query window in
> phpmyadmin. I got the following error instead:
> #1054 - Unknown column 's.generalID' in 'field list'
> It must need some minor tweeking yet.
The error is indicating a column is misnamed, this may be due to a
simple typo or a misunderstanding by one of us.
At this point I have to agree with James' suggestion. Use phpMyAdmin to
supply the actual table info.
> I was reading over this thread this morning and I think it would be
> helpful to everyone watching it if you could post the structure of your
> db. You mentioned phpMyAdmin. From there simply run the 'DESCRIBE
> sci_genera;'. Go to the print view for the results and you can copy and
> paste it into an email. Do the same for the species table.
>
> Cheers,
> James
Good database design is pretty essential to using a Db, wether from PHP
or any other language. From my understanding of your Db so far I think
you might benefit from some input on Db design. For example, naming the
"generalID" column in your sci_genera table is somewhat misleading. It
would be more normal to call it simply 'id' and use 'genusID' or
'genus_id' as the reference to it in the species table. However, that
is a discussion more suited to the PHP database list.
> This script is at an SQL level past my own understanding so far. If we get it
> to work yet, it should be quite the instructive lesson for me. I still stand to
> gain hours of otherwise hand correcting when it finally works.
>
> With thanks to this point,
>
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