If Else Problems

soulreaver

Hi Folks,

Can anyone help? I'm trying to verify a username and password against a DB with the user being redirected depending on success or failure. The problem is that my script ignores the else part of the script completely and just stops. Oh and before anyone suggests I have tried enclosing the header sections in {}, I've tried two IF statements and I've tried changing the order (then it just executes the fail redirect!!) Help would be appreciated.

Here's the code
$sql="SELECT ids.* FROM ids WHERE ((ids.username = '$userid' AND ids.password = '$password'))";

$result=mysql_query($sql);
while($a_row=mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
if($a_row[password]==$password)
header("Location: http://djvkir1pdc1/auth/congrats.php?logged=3");
else
header("Location: http://djvkir1pdc1/auth/failed.php?logged=4");
}

Thanks folks

Neil

parena

try this one:

if($a_row[password]==$password)
{
header("Location: http://djvkir1pdc1/auth/congrats.php?logged=3");
}
else
{
header("Location: http://djvkir1pdc1/auth/failed.php?logged=4");
}

parena

READ IT, PARENA! READ IT!!!

sorry...

how about: $a_row[ids.password]

soulreaver

Hi,

Now this IS getting weird. I tried the above change and this time it skipped the congrats and went stright to fail ! I am really confused.

Neil

trancemission

You could try using:

if($a_row['password']==$password)

instead of

if($a_row[password]==$password)

Dunno if that makes adifference but i always use the 1st one

Cheers
Marcus

Anon

Try this

$sql="SELECT * FROM ids WHERE username = '$userid' AND password = '$password'";

$result=mysql_query($sql);
while($a_row=mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
if($a_row["password"]==$password)
{
header("Location: http://djvkir1pdc1/auth/congrats.php?logged=3");
exit;
}
else
{
header("Location: http://djvkir1pdc1/auth/failed.php?logged=4");
exit;
}
}

soulreaver

Nope, it still failed to execute the fail redirect. I have never had any luck getting else commands to work. Do they need to be set-up anywhere?

Thanks for the continued help.

Neil

soulreaver

Tried this as well, still didn't work

Neil

junebug

well, i think this might be the same problem i had when i made my first login script. are you submiting a blank password? if so, you query the database, it returns no password, then compares it to a variable with no password, and it accepts it. so, add in some variable checking to make sure that the password is set.

soulreaver

Hi,

When testing a password is always entered but obviously does not exist in the DB or else the fail condition could not be tested.

I just tried a very basic if else to ensure that all was well on the server etc and that worked fine. Is it possible that because it is in a while loop it doesn't work the way you expect it?

Neil

junebug

a couple things to try:

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)){
$dbpass = $row['password'];
}

if($dbpass == $password)
blah...
else
blah...

and if that still doesn't work try printing out your results from the database and see if you can narrow down the problem there. also, print the $password variable and see what is being compared.

soulreaver

I found some code in a script I downloaded and nicked it (From www.Devshed.com) Anyway this is the code that works even though its totally different

$sql="SELECT * FROM ids WHERE username = '$userid' AND password = '$lpassword'";

$result=mysql_query($sql);
if (mysql_num_rows($result) == 1)
{
// initiate a session
session_start();
// register the user's ID
session_register("SESSION_UID");
list($id, $userid, $lpassword) = mysql_fetch_row($result);
$SESSION_UID = $id;
// redirect to main page
header("Location:congrats.php?logged=3");
mysql_free_result ($result);
// close connection
mysql_close($connection);
}
else
// login/pass check failed
{
mysql_free_result ($result);
mysql_close($connection);
// redirect to error page
header("Location: failed.php?logged=4");
exit;
}

Hope it helps someone else

kparker

Come one! Is there no one else here besides me disturbed by the fact that Neil is blindly using the query result w/o checking if it failed? The starting part should read something like this:

if (! ($result=mysql_query($sql)))
  die("It's the end of the world as we know it: $php_errormsg");
else
  { // go ahead and read the result data
  ...
  }

Kernighan and Plauger wrote way, way back in Software Tools about putting in error messages for "impossible to happen" conditions, and how embarrassingly often the "can't happen" messages showed up during development anyway, but I guess maybe nobody reads the computer engineering classics any more...

Anon

I had this problem too. It's the exit() function that fixes it. You always want to use the exit() function after a redirect as a failsafe.

kparker

Thanks, Justin, nothing is more frustrating than having some subtle problem, and just replacing it with something totally different. Yes, it gets you over your immediate hurdle, but it also means nothing really was learned...

[deleted]

Been trying to think again par? :-)