[Resolved] sql loop variable problem

[helz]

im making a newsletter script so people can add their emails and things, but for the sending out, the table in the db only has one field called email now what i want is to pull all the emails from the table (1 email per row) and then add it into a variable which will look like this:
$to = [e-mail], [e-mail]
and soforth...
so really i would use a while($row=mysql_fetch_array($result)) thing to get the stuff, but i cant put
$email = $row['email'];
$to = $email
well actually i dont know how to do it

just to get it so it loops the emails into the $to var with a comma after each email...

also i was going to use the strrchr to get rid of the last comma as its going to cause an error in the mail() because its not meant to be there...

any ideas? any help would be greatly appreciated 🙂

also can anyone explain in n00bie terms whats different between while and foreach ?

[examancer]

try something like this:

$sql = "SELECT email FROM users";
$q = mysql_query($sql);

$a = 0; // this will be a counter which will allow us to supress the comma for the first email address
while ($r = mysql_fetch_array($q)) {
  if ($a == 0) {
    // if its the first email, the $to string is created and no comma is used:
    $to = $r['email'];
  } else {
    // each additional email needs a comma seperating it from the one before.
    // All of this is tacked on to the end of the $to var, hence the '.=' syntax:
    $to .= ", " . $r['email']; 
  }
  $a++; // increment the $a value
}

also, when you're done $a will contain the number of email addresses. Plus, you won't have to worry about any commas hanging on the end... There will be exactly the right amount of commas.

Hope this helps.

[tekky]

A solution similiar to what you were mentioning Helz (and what I normally do)

$sql = "SELECT email FROM users";
$q = mysql_query($sql);
while ($r = mysql_fetch_array($q)) {
    $to .= $r['email']. ', ';
}
$to = substr($to,0,-2); //starts at first char and stops 2 chrs from the end removing the blankspace and the ,

[helz]

thanks for that people, will post an update to show that it works 🙂

[helz]

well that works sweet!, me gonna need to know of a better way to send to multiple people with it being a newsletter script. it got slow at only 4 people in the list....

[tekky]

everytime a new member is added
have it UPDATE only ONE line in the database

have this column look like...

[e-mail], [e-mail] etcetc so all you have to do is query that column and you're ready to go, no looping the build the names or anything

[helz]

so lets say that the field is called email:
eg (1 email)
|email |
[e-mail]|

eg(2 emails)
| email |
[e-mail], [e-mail]|

heres an idea of the script that i might use to accomplish this:

$exist = mysql_query("SELECT email FROM $tablename");
$exist = mysql_fetch_array($exist);
$existingemail = $exist['email'];
$newemail = $existingemail.', '.$_POST['email'];
$update = mysql_query("UPDATE $tablename SET email='$newemail' ");

hmm that looks sweet, also gets rid of the extra comma at the end
dya think:
a) that'll work
b) it will be faster

[examancer]

that'll work for all but the first email address i think.

I don't think that would be any faster, but it would allow you to keep all the email addresses nice and neat in a database, which is always good.

[helz]

yea what i did was i added another line that gets the number of rows. 0 if table is empty, and 1 if its not, then use an if statement so that if its 0 then the query is an INSERT INTO and if its 1 its the update one.. which works i might add, just trying to get the delete thingy to work now... this is the code i got:

					$exist = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM $tablename");
					$exist = mysql_fetch_array($exist);  

					$existingemail = $exist['email'];
					$checkio = strpos($existingemail,$_POST['email'].' ,');
						if($checkio === false) {
							$newemail = str_replace(', '.$_POST['email'],"",$existingemail);
						} elseif ($checkio === true) {
							$newemail = str_replace($_POST['email'].' ,',"",$existingemail);
						}
					$update = mysql_query("UPDATE $tablename SET email='$newemail' ");

i think it works. not fully sure, cos ive got a check running that sees if the email exists in the database, if so it deletes it, if not returns the error...
heres the code for the email check:

function EmailCheck() {
global $tablename;
$checkthis = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM $tablename"); 
    $checkthis = mysql_fetch_array($checkthis); 
    $checkthis = strpos($checkthis['email'], $_POST['email']); 
    if ($checkthis === true) { 
        $emailvalidate=1;// email exists in the database
    } elseif ($checkthis === false) { 
        $emailvalidate=0;// email does not exist in the database
    }
}

but the email check doesnt seem to work 🙁 i might adding a default value of: $emailvalidate = 0; somewhere to see or somthing

[helz]

found out the problem is, because the email check is in a function the variable: $emailvalidate isnt being sent out.. any idea how to make the $emailvalidate global? for the rest of the script to use?
easy to put variables into the functions but i dont know how to get em out..

==EDIT==
i tried: return $emailvalidate; and global $emailvalidate in the funtion but still no luck.. could this be because the functions are set at the bottom of the code and not at the top??

[helz]

found out that using strpos, and using if statements you have to do:

if ($foobar === false) {

} else {

}

and not using this:

if ($foobar === true) {

} elseif ($foobar === false) {

}

===EDIT===

hmm that doesnt seem to work but this does 🙂

$foobar = strpos($haystack,$needle);
if ($foobar > 1) {
// strpos = true
} else {
// strpos = false
}