title: How to retrieve imploded array from a cell in an MySQL database through PHP
body: <p>Thanks for taking the time to look at this question. </p>
  
  <p>Currently, I have a piece of code that creates four checkboxes labeled as "Luxury, Brand, Retailer," and "B2B." I have looked into a number of PHP methods to create checkboxes, and I felt the implode() function was the most simple and suitable for my job. I have looked into a number of tutorials to create the implosions, however, they did not fit my criteria, as I would like the database values be reflected in the front-end. Currently in my database, the implode() works, therefore (for example), if I check "Luxury", "Brand", "Retailer", and press the "Submit" button, the three items "Luxury, Brand, Retailer" will be in that specified cell. It looks like my code works in the back-end, but these are my issues:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>I am not exactly sure (despite multiple Googles) how to retrieve those values stored in the single-cell array, and have it selected as "selected" (this would "check" the box in the front-end)</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>Could someone kindly take a look at my code below and let me know what seems to be missing/wrong/erroneous so I could attempt the revisions? Anything would be appreciated, thank you!</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;?
  
  if (isset($_POST['formSubmit2'])){
      $category = mysql_real_escape_string(implode(',',$_POST['category']));
      $accountID = $_POST['accountID'];
  
      mysql_query("UPDATE Spreadsheet SET category='$category' WHERE accountID='$accountID'");
  }
  
  
  $query = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM Spreadsheet LIMIT $firstRow,$rpp");
  
  while($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)){  
  
  // Begin Checkboxes
  
  $values = array('Luxury','Brand','Retailer','B2B');
  
    ?&gt;
  
  &lt;form name ="category" method ="POST" action ="" &gt;
  
   &lt;?
  
  echo "&lt;input type = 'hidden' name = 'accountID' value = '" . $row['accountID'] . "' &gt;";
          for($i = 0; $i &lt; count($values); $i++){
   ?&gt;
  
   &lt;input type="checkbox" name="category[]" value="&lt;?php echo $values[$i]; ?&gt;" id="rbl_&lt;? echo $i; ?&gt;" &lt;? if($row['category'] == $i) echo "checked=\"checked\""; ?&gt;/&gt;
   &lt;? echo $values[$i] ?&gt;&lt;br&gt;
  
   &lt;? } ?&gt;
  
          &lt;input type ="Submit" name ="formSubmit2" value ="Submit" /&gt;
          &lt;/form&gt;
  
   &lt;? } ?&gt;
  </code></pre>