HTML Links passing a variable

Anon

I am attempting to reduce the number of pages I have to update and am trying to pass a variable with a HTML link. I want the link to pass the variable $category from the link to the PHP page that will display those entries that match $category. Here's what I have for the HTML link

then on the show_listings page the line that calls for the category is

$sql = "SELECT * FROM $table_name WHERE category = $category ORDER BY bus_name";

but all I get is a Can't exacute query. What am I missing.. Is this even possible? I can do it from a form but I want to do it from the text link.

Anon

I think your problem is missing quotes. Your sql should look like this:

$sql = "SELECT * FROM $table_name WHERE category = '$category' ORDER BY bus_name";

A few debugging tips:

To test whether the variable has been passed, put a line like this at the top of the page:
echo "category: $category<br>";

Then to check your sql:
echo "SQL: $sql";

If you're using Linux, you can just cut and paste the sql statement from the browser to mysql. That will tell you if there's a syntax error in the SQL statement.

HTH,
Beth

Anon

Thanks that worked going from a page OTHER than show_listings.php. How do I have the links on show_listings.php do the same thing only to itself? i.e. refresh itself with a new variable. I'm getting a 404 error.

Anon

I'm not sure what the problem is.
<a href="show_listings.php?category=art"> should work as well from show_listings.php as from any other page.

Anon

Thanks for all your help it was a typo!

Anon

Quick tip, if you want a page to call itself, don't include the name of the page in itself, reference it with the environmental variables $PHP_SELF or $SCRIPT_NAME

then when you inevitably have to rename the file, it's one less thing to have to change.