Hmmm this a good question, one I've not come across before - so my help may only be of 
limited 
value!

You would have to do an initial query in order to get the table names for your 
proposed 'universal 
query' So presuming you have some method (a variable) of identifying which table you 
want to query:

//Get table col names
$sql = "SELECT * FROM $table";
$result = mysql_query($sql,$connect) or die(mysql_error());
$colName = mysql_fetch_field($result)
//Or use mysql_list_field($db,$table,$result)
//See: http://uk.php.net/manual/en/function.mysql-list-fields.php for more info

//Do your universal query
$sql = "UPDATE $table SET $colName[01]='$pet', $colName[02]='$name' WHERE id=$id";
$result = mysql_query($sql); 

This is NOT tried and tested but simply to give the example that an initial query may 
be used to 
get the field names, (dependant on a set variable to define which table to query) then 
your 
universal update query can be set dependant upon the values of the field names of the 
initial query.

good luck!
Russ

On Mon, 1 Oct 2001 15:27:52 -0600 =?iso-8859-1?Q?Ren=E9_Fournier?= 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 
wrote:

> I'm having a REALLY hard time with something that's probably easy to do (for
> someone :-)...
> 
> Normally, to perform an update on a table with data from a submitted form, I
> would use something like:
> 
>   $sql = "UPDATE $table SET pet='$pet', name='$name' WHERE id=$id";
>   $result = mysql_query($sql);
> 
> And it would work.  Of course, if I wanted to update a different table (with
> different columns/fields), I would need to only change the SET part of the
> SQL (since the value for $table is dynamically generated). For example,
> 
>   $sql = "UPDATE $table SET car='$car', year='$year' WHERE id=$id";
>   $result = mysql_query($sql);
> 
> But here's what I want to do now:  I want to use the same two lines of code
> for any possible form data that might be submitted--in other words, I don't
> want to have to create unique $sql/$result lines for each and every table in
> my database.  I want this .php code to accept whatever number and type of
> form elements/data submitted, and make the appropropriate SET values.
> Anyone know how I can do that?  I actually have tried several things to pass
> the form data strcuture (number and names of columns) over to this php code,
> but haven't been able to get anything working.  Can anyone help??  Much
> thanks if you can..
> 
> ...Rene
> 
> ---
> Rene Fournier
> 
> 
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  Russ Michell
  Anglia Polytechnic University Webteam
  Room 1C 'The Eastings' East Road, Cambridge
  
  e: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  w: www.apu.ac.uk/webteam

  www.theruss.com
                        
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