I'm new to PHP/SQL so help please

I'm trying to create a form that will allow users to select certain foods, using checkboxes, and then submit that information to the table in mysql.

<form action = "choice2.php" method = "post">
<table border = "0">
<tr>
<td><input type = "checkbox" name= food[] value="Chicken
Parmesean">Chicken Parmesean
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><input type="checkbox" name = food[] value="Fried Plantains"> Fried Plantains</td>
</tr>
</form>

<?

$food = $_POST['food']
$query = sprintf("INSERT INTO foods (uid, food) VALUES ('%d', '%s')", $_SESSION["uid"],
$food);
$result = mysql_query($query);
?>

i've been trying a number of different ways, first without using an array, but with each option as a separate variable, but i can't seem to get anything to work. any suggestions?
can't get that suggestion to work - see below

<form action = "choice2.php" method = "post">
<td class="field">Chicken Parmesean</td>
<td><input name = "chicken_parmesean" type="checkbox" value
= "Chicken Parmesean"/></td>
<tr>
<td class="field">Fried Plantains</td>
<td><input name = "fried_plantains" type ="checkbox" value =
"Fried Plantains"/></td>
</form>

<?
$chicken_parmesean = $_POST['chicken_parmesean']
$fried_plantains = $_POST['fried_plantains']

//prepare SQL - should insert true if checked, false if unchecked
$query = sprintf("INSERT INTO foods (uid, Chicken Parmesean, Fried
Plantains) VALUES ('%d', '%s', '%s')", $_SESSION["uid"],
$chicken_parmesean, $fried_plantains);
$result = mysql_query($query);

in the table i have a row for each different food, set as a bool, though i've also tried it as a string or text. 0 always is submitted

Funny thing, I've just been looking into this issue myself. What you might want is the mysql "set" datatype. Basically, you can define a single data element that encodes a set of up to 64 distinct values. You can associate those individual values to your checkboxes.

For example, you can define a set to represent "Fried Plantains," "Kiwi Fruit," "Fried Worms," etc, then record which values the user selected in that set variable.

The downside is that you're limited to 64 values. If you need more than that, you'd need to define several sets.

There are disadvantages to set variables, though. See the referenced link.

An alternative is to concatenate all of the selected values together into a string with a separator, for example "Fried Worms:Liver:Chocolate Cherries" for the values selected by the user. Searching is a bit ickier, but it can be done.

Hope this helps.

-------

You can use implode() and explode() to encode and decode an array of selected checkboxes into a single text string for storage in your table column.