need a little quick help

i need some help.

i have a database and need some help in writing a quick script that will:
1)for each row grab the data from a given field.
2)pass is through a function (strips all spaces and wild characters)
3)inserts it into designated field.

i'm sort of stuck because i don't know where to start. :\

is there a simple way to do this?

 

This is what I have come up with, but it is taking FOREVER...

<?php

include_once("db_connect.php");

$q = mysql_query("SELECT user FROM users");

while($results = mysql_fetch_object($q)) { 
	$user = $results->user;
	$user_convert = urlconvert($results->user);
	$q1 = mysql_query("UPDATE users SET url_user = '".$user_convert."' WHERE user = '".$user."'");
}
mysql_close($q);
	echo "Done!";
?>

PHP:

urlconvert simply strips all spaces and add _ as well as periods and stuff like that.

Anyone have a better method? Because this is taking forever!

 

1)for each row grab the data from a given field.

select * from <Table_name> where <row_name>="user_name";

2)pass is through a function (strips all spaces and wild characters)

$row_num1="Samir $ % UK #@ ";
$row_num2="United State Of America ! * PHP";
$special = array('/','!','&','*','%','-',' ','@','%','#'); // you can add whatever u want to remove from
$new_row_num1 =str_replace($special,'',$row_num1); //$new_row_num1=SamirUK
$new_row_num2 =str_replace($special,'',$row_num2); //$row_num2=UnitedStateOfAmericaPHP

3)inserts it into designated field.

$q1 = mysql_query("UPDATE users SET url_user = '".$new_row_num1."' WHERE user ='".$user."'");

let me know if you ahve any Question regarding PHP script.