[PHP-DB] Re: PHP4, MySQL, errors....

[Hugh Bothwell]

"Cato Larsen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
[EMAIL PROTECTED]">news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> Just to have said it... Im green in both PHP4 and MySQL.
> Can anyone say what I've been doing wrong here, and how to fix it, or even
> better. Debug the whole shit! =)

First, make sure PHP is actually running.
Try this:
    <?php
        $str = "PHP is not running!";
        echo substr($str, 0, 7) . substr($str, 11);
    ?>

For one thing, trying to echo unescaped double-quotes
won't work, ie
    echo "<table leftmargin = "0">";    // no good!
Use ' or \" instead.

Second, all this variable-renaming seems like a waste
of effort; just use the array directly.


>  $cid = mysql_connect($host,$usr,$pwd);
>  if (!$cid) { echo("ERROR: " . mysql_error() . "\n"); }

If the connection fails, your script prints an
error message, then continues trying to query...
    if (!$cid) {
        echo "Error: ".mysql_error();
        exit;
    }
... or redirect them back to a different page.


>  # setup SQL statement
>  $SQL = " SELECT * FROM memberinfo ";
>  $SQL = $SQL . " WHERE prof = '$prof' ";

$sql = "SELECT * FROM memberingo "
    ."WHERE prof='$prof' ";


>   echo ("<P><DT><B>Members who are $prof s</B><BR>\n");

<dt> should only occur in <dl>...</dl>


>    $apperiance = $row["apperiance"];

'appearance'


>    $prof = $row["prof"];

? you already know prof; why query for it?


First thing to do is write a couple of
functions to take care of the formatting
for you:

    // Generic tag-formatting routine
    //   Ensures all tags are closed properly;
    //   Also forces you to think about tag-clause formatting
    //    so the final result is readable.
    function clause($preopen, $tag, $opts, $pretext, $text, $preclose) {
        return "$preopen<$tag $opts>$pretext$text$preclose</$tag>";
    }

    function table($contents) {
        return clause("\n", "table", "style='margin-left: 80px;'>", "",
$contents, "\n");
    }

    function row($contents) {
        return clause("\n\t", "tr", "style='margin-top: 30px;'", "",
$contents, "\n\t");
    }

    function cell($text, $width=0) {
        if ($text == "")            // check for empty str
            $text = "&nbsp;";

        $opts = ($width > 0 ? "style='width: $widthpx;'" : "");

        return clause("\n\t\t", "td", $opts, "", $text, "");
    }

    function bold($text) {
        return clause("", "b", "", "", $text, "");
    }


I would simplify your table, too, at least until
you get it working; play with it after that.


$contents = row(cell("", 150) . cell("", 200) . cell("", 200));

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($retid))
    $contents .= row(
        cell("<img src='{$row["picurl"]}'>")
       .cell(
            bold(
                "{$row["tit"]} {$row["charname"]} "
                ."&quot;{$row["charnick"]}&quot;"
                ."{$row["charsname"]}"
             )."<br>"
            .bold("Contact: ").$row["email"]."<br>"
            .bold("Level: ").$row["lvl"]."<br>"
            .bold("Breed: ").$row["breed"]."<br>"
            .bold("Profession: ").$prof."<br>"
            .bold("Location: ").$row["loc"]."<br>"
            .bold("AIM: ").$row["aim"]."<br>"
            .bold("ICQ: ").$row["icq"]."<br>"
            .bold("MSN: ").$row["msn"]."<br>"
            .bold("Yahoo!: ").$row["yahoo"]."<br>"
         )
        .cell(
            "<br>"
            .bold("Born: ").$row["born"]."<br>"
            .bold("Appearance: ").$row["appearance"]."<br>"
            .bold("Position: ").$row["posn"]."<br>"
            .bold("Characteristics: ").$row["charac"]."<br>"
            .bold("Strengths/weaknesses: ").$row["streng"]."<br>"
            .bold("Bio: ").$row["bio"]."<br>"
         )
    );

echo table($contents);


(Note: this approach builds the whole table in memory, in order
to print it out using the clause() function; it might be worth breaking
that out and printing the table a row at a time if there are
many rows in the table.)



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