Why don't my FOR loops work?

[Anon]

Can someone please just breeze over this simple script, and explain to me why I get the following error:

Parse error: parse error, expecting `')'' in /Users/andy/Sites/tmp/class.php on line 12

The small script is:

<?
$db = mysql_connect("localhost", "tmp", "");
mysql_select_db("tmpdb",$db);

$dept_query = mysql_query("SELECT
dept_id,
dept_name
FROM
departments
ORDER BY
dept_id");

$num_depts =(mysql_num_rows($dept_query));
$dept =(mysql_fetch_object($dept_query));

for ( $i=0; $i < $num_depts; i++ ) {

echo ("dept name is ".$dept[dept_name]."<br>");

}
?>

[khaine]

I dont think the loop is the problem. Try changing your code to

<?
$db = mysql_connect("localhost", "tmp", "");
mysql_select_db("tmpdb",$db);

$query="SELECT dept_id, dept_name from departments order by dept_id";
$dept_query = mysql_query($query, $db);
if ( !$dept_query )
{
mysql_error();
exit;
}

$num_depts=(mysql_num_rows($dept_query));
$dept=(mysql_fetch_object($dept_query));

for ( $i=0; $i<$num_depts; i++ )
{
echo ("dept name is ".$dept[dept_name]."<br>");
}

?>

[fitzbean]

You simply forgot to specify a DB in your mysql_query command.

[yendor]

The php parser is looking for a right pren ) at the end of line 12. Which line is line 12? I would try keeping your query on one line.

$dept_query = mysql_query("SELECT dept_id,dept_name FROM departments ORDER BY dept_id");

Or if you insist on breaking it up do something like this.

$dept_query = mysql_query("SELECT dept_id,dept_name ".
"FROM departments ORDER BY dept_id");

This prevents the parser from being confused.

HTH,
Rodney

[bfranco]

You are not incrementing the value of "i", as you see:
for ( $i=0; $i < $num_depts; i++ )

is not incrementing the variable. You have to write:
for ( $i=0; $i < $num_depts; $i++ ).

[yendor]

That would explain the parse error. Since PHP saw the ; after $num_depts and didn't get another varible after that it gave you an error. It was expecting the closing ), but saw a ; instead. If you did this:

for ($i=0;$i < $num_depts; $i++😉

You should get the same error.

As Fancois said, the correct format is:

for ( $i=0; $i < $num_depts; $i++ ).

Just to clarify the error

Rodney

[Anon]

Thanks guys - I managed to strip down that code from one that was much larger, and couldn't for the life of me see it - as it was the only FOR loop in there, I thought I couldn't do a for...

still, sage advice about keeping stuff on one line, so that the parser, and me don't get confused.

Cheers