Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource

tuf-web_co_uk

right i have this code, but it keeps showing the error message - Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource! please can someone help me figure this out 🙁

$sql = "select * from index WHERE page = $_GET[page]";
$result = mysql_query($sql, $conn);

while ($pages = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
echo "<font face=Verdana size=1><u><br>";
echo "<img src=images/";
echo ".$pages[title].";
echo ".gif height=60 width=400></img></u><br><br>";
echo $pages[text];
}

thanks in advance people 🙂

sgoku01

Does this change anything?

$sql = "select * from index WHERE page = ' ".$_GET['page']." '";

tuf-web_co_uk

nope that didnt seem to work, please can you help me further?!

jpmoriarty

try setting up the connection to the database first, and then running the query.

$link = mysql_connect("mysql_host", "mysql_user", "mysql_password")
        or die("Could not connect");

mysql_select_db("my_database") or die("Could not select database");

/* Performing SQL query */
$query = "SELECT * FROM my_table";
$result = mysql_query($query) or die("Query failed");

That way you can make sure you're connecting to the DB properly first.

tuf-web_co_uk

right i commented out the while ($pages = mysql_fetch_array($result)) function and the echos that came with it.

and no error messages came up! so i must be connecting to it properly. but when i uncomment it, it brings the same error up

please help :mad:

stolzyboy

$sql = "select * from index WHERE page = '$_GET[page]'";

notice the single ticks wrapped around the $_GET[page], this will be necessary if the field is a string

tuf-web_co_uk

right...

i took out the variable $page so that it didnt depend on the query string to show up which page i just used

$sql = "SELECT * from index WHERE page = cheats";

which should show the cheats main page! but i still get the

supplied argument error!!

anymore help out there please 😕 🙁

stolzyboy

you need to tick cheats, anything that is a string, not an integer, you need to tick

<?
$sql = "SELECT * from index WHERE page = 'cheats';";
?>

Tracer

I had a similar problem....

try

sql = "SELECT (*) from index WHERE page = 'cheats';";

jpmoriarty

I always used to dread SQL statements because of the ticks and the quote marks and all that jazz. I did find though (and this may be common knowedge, so forgive me if I'm being too simplistic) that it's really useful to use the escape character ([/b]) when forming SQL statements, and to avoid using "ticks" at all.

eg

$sql = "select * from table where text = \"".$text."\"";

which may look no different or may look very confusing, but what it does is because you've escaped the first " with the \ character, PHP simply outputs it as opposed to intepreting it: that way, if you were to echo $sql later (and had set $text = "search string" for example) it would read:

select * from table where text = "search string"

It's handy because i've found having the quotes in the sql statement make for less errors when you try to ass stuff in there (when i surrounded them with ticks i was forever trying to avoid entering an apostrophe into my search strings etc).

If that doesnt make any sense then please say so and i'll try again, but i;d strongly suggest trying it in your code - just be careful to remember which quotes you want escaped and which ones you dont - it can be quite confusing when you look at it later on!

stolzyboy

there is no need to use concatenation on an sql string, that is why ticks suffice, anything that is not double quotes inside the double quoted sql statement are ignored, so ticks work just fine, but they need to be used around strings to work, again, no need to hop in and out of the sql statement for the variable assigning, and therefore no need to escape anything

jpmoriarty

yes but if the search string is called "It's a knockout" then wont that cause all sorts of problems? I kept getting sql errors on mine...

It's just a different way of going about it - my preference is for the quotes.

stolzyboy

nope that should not cause problems, i have done this many of times, and if you are inserting stuff correctly, then you will not have to pull it back in any weird fashion, by correctly i mean by addslashes or having magic quotes on and stuff like that, but if you are used to consistency and you are constantly doing it that way, then go for it

tuf-web_co_uk

right i have tried each of the suggestions posted in this thread, and still get the same error message

this is the code i am trying to use after all of the suggestions

$sql = "select * from table where page = ".$page."";
$result = mysql_query($sql);

while ($pages = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
echo "<font face=Verdana size=1><u><br>";
echo "<img src=images/";
echo ".$pages[title].";
echo ".gif height=60 width=400></img></u><br><br>";
echo $pages[text];
}

can anybody please help me, or can they show me a script like the one from phpnuke where it shows different modules. thanks :mad:

Elizabeth

I think people have been close, but I'm seeing an extra semi-colon in there from some...
You have too many quotes in your statement and it's confusing MySQL-

$sql = "select * from table where page = ".$page."";

MySQL thinks the line is ending when it gets to the quote after the equals sign.

Try:

$sql = "SELECT * FROM table WHERE page = '$page' ";

No extra semi-colon before the end quotes, only the semi-colon at the end of the file is needed.
HTH..

-Elizabeth

stolzyboy

actually mysql wants the semicolon at the end, that is how you would do it in command line, the semicolon is not the problem, this person is having quoting problems or query not returning results as they expect problems, the first semicolon tells mysql to end the query, the second is telling php that the line is over, so as i said the semicolon is not the problem

Elizabeth

Yes, when I use putty I put the semi-colon at the end, but I have never used 2 of them in a php setting when quoting a sql command. Very odd. I guess it works both ways!

<-- never too old to learn! 😃

-Elizabeth

jerdo

This guys main problem is he can't read. He was told 5 times he needs to put quotes or single quotes around the text value he is searching for in the sql string, starting with the first reply to his post. I would call this one a lost cause.

stolzyboy

you are exactly correct, he never follows my direction, i wasn't so much replying to him anymore, but trying to explain to elizabeth what i was explaining to him

tuf-web_co_uk

hey look lets not get personal, i followed each and everyone of your advice like you sed and none of them work so dont blame me!

i'm sorry if ur suggestions didnt work but it aint my fault.

and dont blame my database cos its right!