Retreiving single items from mysql

Anon

I am designing a php/mysql site which will display reviews of dvd's and computer games.

On the page will be numerous things, but i want to be able to display the reviewers name and the review.

I am using :

$result = mysql_query("select first_name, last_name from user where user_id like \"$user_id\"; ");
$name = $result["first_name"];
echo ("$name");

this is not getting any results, but if i use a while

$result = mysql_query("select first_name, last_name from user where user_id like \"$user_id\"; ");
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
$name = $row["first_name"];
echo ("$name");

it does!!!

Is there any way (as small as possible) to JUST get the details and display it rather then having to go through a while statement? I am a newbie so there may be another way?

basically i want to just :

Get first_name from user where user_id like user_id ;
display first_name

Glyn

amcgrath

echo mysql_result($result,0) should work for you. (You might want to familiarize yourself with the other mysql functions in the manual)....

stevenrhiggins

$result = mysql_query("select first_name, last_name from user where user_id like '$user_id' ");

if ($row=mysql_fetch_row(result)) {
$name = $row["first_name"];
print"$name";
}

vsego

The point is in mysql_fetch_array() which returns array. $result is NOT array. :-)

$row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
$name = $row["first_name"];
echo $name;

instead of

$name = $result["first_name"];
echo $name;

vsego

Three answers within 49 seconds! Is this a record of this board? :-)

Anon

In the second example you are grabbing the results. In the first example you aren't. You need to grab the contents of the results, so you would use the following code:

$result = mysql_query("select first_name, last_name from user where user_id like \"$user_id\"; ");
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
$name = $row["first_name"];
echo ("$name");

stevenrhiggins

The cleanest way is to use fetch_assoc since fetch_array retrieves information as an array that contains both numeric and associative keys, meaning that the function returns an array in which each field value appears twice- once with a numberic key and once with an associative key. That's okay for small queries but for larger ones fetch_assoc is considered more efficient.

Of course with fetch_assoc you can't use
$row{1] for the variable, you must use the field name as in $row["field"].

[deleted]

If you use mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC) you also get just the associative stuff.

But if you want really want to be compact you should go for mysql_fetch_row() because that gives you a normal array.

amcgrath

All:

Why use mysql_fetch_array in this case when the query is only returning one row? (I'm asking to learn something, not questioning the advice.) I thought mysql_result($result,0) would work a little cleaner (My own personal style is -- using Postgres --- pg_result() for one column/one row returns, pg_fetch_object() for one row/many column returns, and pg_fetch_array() for many rows/many columns returns. Am I giving up performance doing this?

Anon

What I want is

#1 code to get items from a SINGLE row, ie first_name, last_name, email (all one table) then the review, review_date (another table).

#2 to get a LIST, ie all reviews beginning with A, ALL computer reviews that are audio related/etc

I need the code as compact as poss as I am just going to write the php code and the other fella will just do php includes depending where the data will go. so say the review is Ronin. I will retreive the review text, review date from the review table and also the username and email from the user table (the review will have a user_id link to the user table). this will then place the relevent details wherever they are to go. I will probably do this by getting ALL of the info at the start of the page, putting it into cariables then displaying the variables throughout the page.

THEN i want to display arrays of things, such as ALL reviews beginning with A. this will be ok (mysql_fetch_array).

Hope this explains it more clear.