How do I parse PHP Variables in a MySQL result?

[jsw000]

If I have something like hello $myvar as the value for a MySQL field named data, how do I get PHP to parse this value after I select it from the database?

For instance if I code:

<?php
// MySQL field named data has value: hello $myvar

$myvar = "world";
$sql = "SELECT data FROM the_table WHERE id='1'";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result);

$output = $row["data"];
echo $output;

// $output value is:
hello $myvar
?>

I would like the $output value to be: hello world, but I can't get PHP to parse $row["data"] first! It is driving me crazy! Any help is greatly appreciated.

What really confuses me is that:
<?php
$myvar = "world";
$output = "hello $myvar";
echo $output;
?>

works fine as expected. So why does it not work with the MySQL method?

Best,
Jhaura

[TodManPlaa]

You don't have any error checking in there, so how can you possibly know what is causing the problem. Here is a sample error code:

if(!$result){
	//no result so supplied data is incorrect
	print("<b>error number:</b> " . mysql_errno() . "<br>");
	print ("<b>error:</b> " . mysql_error());
	exit;
}

use that, get the error so you know what the problem is and then see if you can figure it out.

/s

[jsw000]

I did some more research and found the eval(); function. Works great. For example:

<?php 
// MySQL field named data has value: hello $myvar 

$myvar = "world"; 
$sql = "SELECT data FROM the_table WHERE id='1'"; 
$result = mysql_query($sql); 
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result); 

$output = $row["data"];
$output = eval("?>" .  $output);
echo $output;

// produces the desired result
?>

Thanks,
Jhaura

[MrAlaska]

One possibility is your PHP server might not be configured to read associative arrays by default. Just for grins give this a try:

$row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC);

It's good practice anyway to explicity tell the parcer which type of result set you want.