How to Insert Data into a Table in a Custom Plugin using wpdb

In this article, we will show you how to insert data into a table in a custom plugin using wpdb. First, you need to include the wpdb class file which is located in the wp-includes folder. Next, you need to create an object of the wpdb class. After that, you can use the insert method of the wpdb class to insert data into a table. You need to specify the table name, an array of data, and an array of where conditions. Finally, you need to use the query method to execute the SQL query. Let’s take a look at the code snippet below.

include_once(ABSPATH . 'wp-admin/includes/upgrade.php');

global $wpdb;

$wpdb = new wpdb("username", "password", "database_name", "localhost");

$wpdb->insert( 
	'table_name', 
	array( 
		'column1' => 'value1', 
		'column2' => 'value2'
	), 
	array( 
		'%s',  
		'%s' 
	) 
);

$wpdb->query($wpdb->prepare("
	INSERT INTO table_name (column1, column2)
	VALUES (%s, %s)", 
	array(
		'value1',
		'value2'
	)
));

In the code snippet above, we first included the wpdb class file. Next, we created an object of the wpdb class. After that, we inserted data into the table using the insert method. Finally, we executed the SQL query using the query method. That’s all there is to it!

Assuming you have a table with the following columns:

First Name
Last Name
Email

You can insert data into this table using the wpdb class like so:

$wpdb->insert(
‘your_table_name’,
array(
‘first_name’ => ‘John’,
‘last_name’ => ‘Doe’,
’email’ => ‘john@example.com’
)
);

This will insert a new row into your table with the data you have specified. You can also specify additional options when inserting data:

$wpdb->insert(
‘your_table_name’,
array(
‘first_name’ => ‘John’,
‘last_name’ => ‘Doe’,
’email’ => ‘john@example.com’
),
array(
‘%s’,
‘%s’,
‘%s’
)
);

The third parameter of the insert method is an array of formatting options. The above example tells WordPress that all of the data being inserted is a string. This is important as it ensures that the data is properly escaped before being inserted into the database (which prevents against SQL injection attacks).

If you need to insert multiple rows of data at once, you can use the insert method like so:

$wpdb->insert(
‘your_table_name’,
array(
array(
‘first_name’ => ‘John’,
‘last_name’ => ‘Doe’,
’email’ => ‘john@example.com’
),
array(
‘first_name’ => ‘Jane’,
‘last_name’ => ‘Smith’,
’email’ => ‘jane@example.com’
)
)
);

This will insert two rows of data into your table. Note that the data for each row must be wrapped in its own array.

It is also possible to insert data into a table using a MySQL query. However, this is not recommended as it does not properly escape the data, which leaves your site vulnerable to SQL injection attacks.

In the previous article we looked at how to create a custom plugin and how to create a settings page for it. In this article we will look at how to insert data into a table in a custom plugin using wpdb.

We will use the same plugin from the previous article and add a new function to insert data into a table. The first thing we need to do is to create a new table in the database. We can do this using the following SQL query:

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `wp_myplugin_table` (

`id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,

`name` varchar(255) NOT NULL,

`email` varchar(255) NOT NULL,

`message` text NOT NULL,

PRIMARY KEY (`id`)

);

This will create a new table called wp_myplugin_table in the database if it does not already exist. The table has four columns: id, name, email and message. The id column is the primary key and is set to auto increment.

Next we need to write the code to insert data into the table. We will do this in the my_plugin_insert_data() function which we will add to the my_plugin.php file:

function my_plugin_insert_data() {

global $wpdb;

$table_name = $wpdb->prefix . “myplugin_table”;

$name = $_POST[“name”];

$email = $_POST[“email”];

$message = $_POST[“message”];

$wpdb->insert(

$table_name,

array(

“name” => $name,

“email” => $email,

“message” => $message,

)

);

}

This function will insert data into the wp_myplugin_table table. The first thing it does is to get the table name by concatenating the WordPress database prefix with the table name. Next it gets the name, email and message values from the $_POST array. Finally it uses the $wpdb->insert() method to insert the data into the table.

Now that we have the function to insert data into the table, we need to call it when the form is submitted. We will do this by adding an action hook to the my_plugin_settings_page() function:

function my_plugin_settings_page() {

…

if (isset($_POST[“submit”])) {

my_plugin_insert_data();

}

…

}

This will call the my_plugin_insert_data() function when the form is submitted.

Now that we have added the code to insert data into the table, we can test it by filling out the form and submitting it. If everything works correctly, the data should be inserted into the table.

In this article we have looked at how to insert data into a table in a custom plugin using wpdb. We have also seen how to create a new table and how to call a function when the form is submitted.

Now that you know how to insert data into a table using wpdb, you might be wondering how to update data in a table. To do this, you need to use the wpdb::update() method. The update() method takes four parameters: the table name, an array of data to update, an array of where conditions, and an array of options.

Here’s an example of how to use the update() method:

$wpdb->update(
‘wp_my_table’,
array(
‘column1’ => ‘value1’,
‘column2’ => ‘value2’
),
array( ‘ID’ => 1 ),
array(
‘%s’,
‘%s’
),
array( ‘%d’ )
);

This example would update the row with an ID of 1 in the wp_my_table table. The first array sets the columns to update and the corresponding values. The second array sets the conditions for which rows should be updated. The third array sets the format for the data. The fourth array sets the format for the where conditions.

You can also use the wpdb::update() method to update multiple rows at once. To do this, you just need to pass an array of data to the update() method. The array should be in the format of column => value.

Here’s an example of how to update multiple rows at once:

$wpdb->update(
‘wp_my_table’,
array(
‘column1’ => ‘value1’,
‘column2’ => ‘value2’
),
array( ‘ID’ => 1, ‘ID’ => 2 ),
array(
‘%s’,
‘%s’
),
array( ‘%d’, ‘%d’ )
);

This example would update the row with an ID of 1 and the row with an ID of 2 in the wp_my_table table.