mysql query loop runs twice then dies

[thinsoapy]

I wrote the following code to take the word "The" out of titles in my movie/book db. I ran the script for "A" and "An", and it worked just fine, updating all the records. When I ran it for "The", it updated two titles and then the query died on the third title. I thought maybe the server was down so I tried to run it later but it just dies everytime now.

Thanks

Dave Reynolds

/ test Title string to see if it begins with a, an, the. /

include ("functions.inc");

db_connect();

$query = "SELECT Title FROM my_table WHERE Title REGEXP '^The '";
$result = mysql_db_query ("my_db", $query)
or die ("Cannot EXECUTE query");
$num_results = mysql_num_rows($result);

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

$row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
$old_title = $row["Title"];

$length = strlen($row["Title"]);
$length = $length-1;
$new_title = substr($row["Title"], 4, $length);
$query_a = "UPDATE my_table SET Title='$new_title' WHERE Title='$old_title'";
$result_a = mysql_db_query ("my_db", $query_a)
or die ("Cannot EXECUTE update query");
echo "$new_title was updated";

}

[tomhath]

Is there a unique index on the Title column? Echo the Title it's reading and see if the new title already exists.

[thinsoapy]

I've got it to echo practically after each line of code, ie: $old_title is correct (and the only occurrence - no titles are doubles - and it shows the correct $new_title after removing the "The " string. It just won't update the Title column in the table.

Thanks,

Dave Reynolds