From and Database Value Comparisons

[eluser]CroNiX[/eluser]
This is easy using the form_helper with form_validation and also set_value('fieldname', $default'), where $default will be your original data from the database which would show up on page load. If the user submits the form and there is a validation error, it will repopulate the form with whatever they entered. No errors, update.

If you try to "update" a database row, but no info actually changes, MySQL will ignore the update. It only actually performs an update if data actually changes. This is much more efficient than running a query to get the old data, checking it against the new data to see if anything changed and if it did, then update.