Frustration

xplodersuv

Been a while since i worked with php, but can't see why this wont work:

<?php
$ref = "dba";
$db = mysql_pconnect("localhost", "user", "***");
mysql_select_db("gpdistributing_com", $db) or die( "Error opening database");
$result = mysql_query("SELECT FROM help WHERE name=".$ref,$db);
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
print("Description: $row[description] ");
print("Example: $row[example]");
?>

i get an error from the query, however this works

<?php
$ref = "dba";
$db = mysql_pconnect("localhost", "user", "****");
mysql_select_db("gpdistributing_com", $db) or die( "Error opening database");
$result = mysql_query("SELECT FROM help WHERE name='dba'",$db);
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
print("Description: $row[description] ");
print("Example: $row[example]");
?>

what am i doing wrong? i eventually want to use a post or a get variable instead of directly assigning it

laserlight

The problem is that the query resolves to:

SELECT * FROM help WHERE name=dba

Now, Do you have a "dba" identifier?
No, you (presumably) only have a "dba" value for the "name" column.

As such, you should use:

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM help WHERE name='" . $ref . "'",$db);

This also helps prevent SQL injection.