A nice easy one about getting data out of MySQL

[Anon]

Hi guys,

Very basic problem but I'm kind of new to all this.

I need to get a single piece of data out of a table in MySQL - a user's password. Here's the tyable:

Table: USERS

USER_ID | USER_NAME | USER_PASS

1 | Skunk | pass1
2 | Mut | pass2

etc

I've got a form which sends in a USER_ID and an entered password. I need to check that password against the one in the database before allowing them to proceed.

Problem is - as far as I can tell all the MySQL PHP commands result in arrays etc. I don't want an array, I want a single variable with the password form the database for that user in it.

Here's what I've got in the way of SQL:

$sql = "SELECT USER_ID, USER_PASS FROM USERS WHERE USER_ID=\"$data_from_form\"";

I've got all the connection stuff etc - the question is, how do I get my variable $db_user_password to equal whatever the USER_PASS for that user ID is?

This is only my third attempt at a PHP application so cut me some slack ;o)

Cheers,

Skunk

[Anon]

MySQL queries return one or more rows. To refer to a single column within a single row, you can either use one of the array functions or the object function. I find the latter slightly more clear:

// run the query and get the results
$ret = mysql_query($sql);

// get one row as an object
$user = mysql_fetch_object($ret);
// now you can refer to $user->COLUMNNAME

if (strcmp($user->user_pass, $password_from_form)
{
echo "Sorry, wrong password. Hack again.<BR>";
// et cetera
}
else
header("Location: success.php");

[Anon]

Cheers :o)