Using text in where clause

Senior WebHelper Joined: 21 Apr 2003 Posts: 153

How can I use text in the where clause in php, like

Code:

SELECT state FROM people WHERE name = $name

and $name would be joe?
I allways get this error when I do this

Code:

Warning: mysql_numrows(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home/stingbas/public_html/webtech/pagecreator/disp.php on line 6

I think it means it didnt find anything but I dont know how to get it to work.

Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2004 7:30 pm (20 years, 2 months ago)

after the call to mysql_query(), add:

Code:

print mysql_error();

so you can see why the query failed...if it simply hadn't found anything, it wouldn't produce that error.

Junior WebHelper Joined: 06 Dec 2003 Posts: 25

Have you tried running the query through phpmyadmin? I normally do this to test queries then when you put it in the code it works straight off...

Also on another note you should really have unenclosed query strings because if you have spaces or ' in the string the query will fail...

so it probably should be:

Code:

SELECT state FROM people WHERE name = ' ".$name." '

..also if $name is a variable from a form you should use:

Code:

SELECT state FROM people WHERE name = ' ".$_POST['name']." '

other things to watch out for is whether the field names are the same case as in the table.

hope you get it working Wink