It only inputs credit_id, because your SQL query only specifies (credit_id). I guess you want to add other fields to each version_author? If so, you must not directly call a DB::insert(), as that just inserts a new row into your database with just one field (the credit_id) filled out.

How are you saving which credit_id belongs to which author? Do you have a many-to-many relationship?

Basically what you probably need is an Author model and a Credit model and have them connected through a relationship. You can then add as many credit_ids to each author as you like. However, you question above does not give enough details to correctly answer this.

A quickfix is maybe to add the author_id to the SQL query:

DB::insert('INSERT INTO version_authors (credit_id, author_id) VALUES (?, ?)', array($credit_id, $author->id));

If you have the models already and have a relationship defined, you are able to do this without the foreach-loop:

$author->credits()->sync($credits);

I need to input:

credit_id (which is the relationship)
role_id
biography_id
bio_name_id
created_by (these are the same and do not change line by line)
updated_by (these are the same and do not change line by line)

In addition created_at and updated_at need to be set (which doesn't happen with the above).

I've already got Credit and Author models but a tutorial I found only recommended doing it as a DB::insert.

So is version_authors a pivot table or a model table? And are authors and credits in a many-to-many relationship?

It's a pivot table. Both are in many-to-many relationships. They'll share similar data but remain separate.

Ooookeeyy... basically what you need is to define your relationship like so in the Authors model:

public function credits()
{
    return $this->belongsToMany('Credit', 'version_authors')->withTimestamps();
}

Then, in the controller create the pivot table entry with

$author->credits()->attach($credits, array(
    'role_id' => Input::get('role_id'),
    'biography_id' => Input::get('biography_id'),
    ...,
    'created_by' => Auth::user()->id,
    'updated_by' => Auth::user()->id,
));

Because the relationship is defined with ->withTimestamps(), this automatically fills in the created_at and updated_at in the pivot table.

But this requires that the pivot table also has an author_id column!

But the question is, how do I insert multiple values? There isn't really a relationship between these two tables. The data is being copied and will be changed independently.

Right now, the code in the original post inserts credit_id. I need it to do all of them. At this point, there is no role_id input, etc.

So I need to know how this data can be inserted into a different table.

I think I don't quite get it yet. Can you post your model schema? Like so:

table posts:
field_1
field_2
field_3
...

table version_authors:
credit_id
field_2
...

for all the tables that are relevant here?

It's really not a table issue. I also tried this:

	    @foreach($version->of_show->has_credits as $credit)
    	
			<li><label for="{{ $credit->credit_id }}">
				<input type="checkbox" name="credit[{{ $credit->credit_id }}]" id="{{ $credit->credit_id }}" value="{{ $credit->credit_id }}"> <span>{{ $credit->display_name }} ({{ $credit->role_name }})</span>
				
				<input type="hidden" name="role_id[{{ $credit->role_id }}]" id="{{ $credit->role_id }}" value="{{ $credit->role_id }}">
				<input type="hidden" name="bio_name_id[{{ $credit->bio_name_id }}]" id="{{ $credit->bio_name_id }}" value="{{ $credit->bio_name_id }}">
				<input type="hidden" name="biography_id[{{ $credit->biography_id }}]" id="{{ $credit->biography_id }}" value="{{ $credit->biography_id }}">
			</label></li>
    	
    	@endforeach

With this being the controller:

	$credits = Input::get('credit');
	$role_id = Input::get('role_id');
	$biography_id = Input::get('biography_id');
	$bio_name_id = Input::get('bio_name_id');
	$version_id = Input::get('version_id');
	
	foreach ($credits as $credit_id)
	{
        DB::insert('INSERT INTO version_authors (credit_id, version_id, role_id, biography_id, bio_name_id) VALUES (?,?)', array($credit_id, $version_id, $role_id, $biography_id, $bio_name_id));
    }

It gave me the error:

preg_replace(): Parameter mismatch, pattern is a string while replacement is an array

So, as you can see. It's trying to get multiple columns copied instead of just one.