append to existing field

[Anon]

can anyone help with this code, i think i am just incorrectly displaying results of the first query to attach to the second.

$query ="select posts from news where username =$username";
$result = "mysql_query($query)";
$contents='"$result"';
$contents.='<br><br>"$news"';
$query ="update news set posts=$contents where username=$username ";
mysql_query($query) or die (mysql_error());

[matto]

first,
"where username =$username"

the username surely is a string, isn't it?
use quotes:
"where username='$username'"

(the same for set posts='$contents')

second,
read the mysql functions reference.
mysql_query returns a result resouce id, not the result itself. you can grasp it using maysql_fetch_array, for example.