What do you mean by sending variable?
What does it mean, mysql_query() can't recognize the variable?
On my understanding!!
Suppose that you have a submit button named linderoth.
To access your database based on this variable, one way is to use isset(), i.e,
if(isset(linderoth)){
your query goes here
bilabila...
}
If this doesn't help you, you better post that part of the script so that we try it...
Solomon