Data from form to MySQL

Noctule

I can not seem to get information to pass from php to mysql using the insert command. I can connect to the database and select the table but when I use below code I don't get an entry to the database.

<html>
<body>
<?php
if ($submit) {
// process form
$db = mysql_connect("localhost", "root");
mysql_select_db("mydb",$db);
$sql = "INSERT INTO employees (first,last,address,position) VALUES ('$first','$last','$address','$position')";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
echo "Thank you! Information entered.\n";
} else{
// display form
?>
<form method="post" action="<?php echo $PHP_SELF?>">
First name:<input type="Text" name="first"><br>
Last name:<input type="Text" name="last"><br>
Address:<input type="Text" name="address"><br>
Position:<input type="Text" name="position"><br>
<input type="Submit" name="submit" value="Enter information">
</form>
<?php
} // end if
?>
</body>
</html>

Note: The above code is extracted from an online tutorial
http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/99/21/index3a_page4.html?tw=programming

Any suggestions? I am at wits end because in another php page I can display the contents of the same database. It is like I have one way communication with the database. Also when I press the submit button it just clears the form and doesn't display "Thank you! Information entered" Please help me. I have tried everything.

kpowning

So, Are you testing this on the server or on your computer?

In this part of the script:

$sql = "INSERT INTO employees (first,last,address,position) VALUES

Change it to:

$sql = "INSERT INTO employees (first, last, address, position) VALUES

By simply adding spaces in between your variables.
Also, I'll try to make the script for you, give a few minutes....

kpowning

Try this, it might help...Not Positive though...

<html> 
<body> 
<?php $db = mysql_connect("localhost", "root"); 
mysql_select_db("mydb",$db); 
$sql = "INSERT INTO employees (first, last, address, position) VALUES ('$first','$last','$address','$position')"; 
$result = mysql_query($sql); 
echo "Thank you! Information entered.\n"; 
?>
<form method="post" action="<?php echo $PHP_SELF?>"> 
First name:<input type="Text" name="first"><br> 
Last name:<input type="Text" name="last"><br> 
Address:<input type="Text" name="address"><br> 
Position:<input type="Text" name="position"><br> 
<input type="Submit" name="submit" value="Enter information"> 
</form> 
</body> 
</html>
<?php 
} 
?>

Noctule

You have got me closer. The code now enters a blank entry in the database proving a connection. I am new to this and am not confident with the install. I have Apache 1.3.27, PHP 4.2.2, and MySQL 4.0.4. This is driving me crazy.

Thanks again for helping me get this far.

Noctule

Just wanted to complete this post with a solution to my problem. I also wanted to thank kpowning for his help with this in the private messenges. I guess with the more recent releases of PHP they have turned of register_globals in the php.ini file. This affects how the variables are used in the scripts. There is a warning that by enabling this you could leave your self more vunrable to attack. I don't know the proper way to decalre the variables... yet, but atleast this gets me going. Hope that this will help someone else. Thanks again kpowning.