Is it bad to put a MySQL query in a PHP loop?

Question

I often have large arrays, or large amounts of dynamic data in PHP that I need to run MySQL queries to handle.

Is there a better way to run many processes like INSERT or

Answer 1

OPTION 1 You can actually run multiple queries at once.

$queries = '';

foreach(){
    $queries  .= "INSERT....;";  //notice the semi colon
}

mysql_query($queries, $connection);

This would save on your processing.

OPTION 2

If your insert is that simple for the same table, you can do multiple inserts in ONE query

$fruits = "('".implode("'), ('", $fruitsArray)."')";
mysql_query("INSERT INTO Fruits (Fruit) VALUES $fruits", $connection);

The query ends up looking something like this:

$query = "INSERT INTO Fruits (Fruit)
  VALUES
  ('Apple'),
  ('Pear'),
  ('Banana')";

This is probably the way you want to go.