mailing mysql results

Anon

hi all. I am working on the final steps of my page but i got stuck. I basically want to email a user a copy of what they bought with their other info, name address etc. I got the last part done, how to mail the address, name, etc which was easy but, is there a way to mail the results of a database query? I can show it on the page just fine, but when $row is the variable i put in the mail, all i get where what was bought, would be, i get "resource id 2 "
would i have to put the actual loop
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))

in the text of the mail, or how could i go about getting what i want
matt

pnoeric

Matt - in this case follow the basic rule of debugging: keep breaking the problem down into smaller pieces until it works. So for you, first make it fetch the data from the database and echo it to the screen, then you can see that the right info is being pulled. Once you have that working, then add the code to email those results instead of echoing. If you're seeing 'resource id 2' then you're emailing the resource pointer to the database, not the contents of the database. So yeah, you need to do that SQL command first to fetch a row and then work with that row to get it the way you want it... THEN echo/email it.

best
Eric

Anon

even before i do this, i can just see the user getting an email for every item they bought. is this truely what will happen or is php smarter than that?

Anon

The idea is not to combine fetching results and sending the mail. First, fetch all the information in a temporary string, adding all the decorations like Hello and Glad to see ya, just like you do outputting to the screen. And being over with it, send this $tmpstring by e-mail. It seems to be siple enough, just dont try do everything simultaneously 😉

pnoeric

"is php smarter than that" --my friend, this is programming, not love :-) there is no smart or not smart, it's just how you program it. every time you use the mail() function, it will send an email, so it's up to you to decide when and how you want to do that.

good luck
eric