my First Function

[vaska]

I've never written my own function - although I've hacked up a few in the past.

This function just outputs some entries from a blog I'm toying around with today.

I'm really trying to learn how to write functions now to get my newb skills to a higher level.

What can I do to tighten this up - oh yes, this is working AOK as it is...

Thank...v

function getEntries($user) {
$s = "";
$query = mysql_query ("SELECT * from main,users,templates,sections WHERE main.mainsecid=sections.secid AND main.maintemplid=templates.templid AND main.mainmid='1' AND main.mainusid='$user' ORDER BY pdate DESC, ptime DESC LIMIT 0,6");
$row = mysql_fetch_array($query);
}
if (!mysql_num_rows($query)) { $s = "Sorry, but those files are being updated right now."; }
else { do {
$s .= "<h1>$row[title]</h1>\n";
$s .= "$row[text]\n";
$s .= "<br /><br />";
} while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)); }
echo $s;
}

[drawmack]

I only have two points

1) slitting your sql up will make sql error message mean a little more as you'll get the line number within the query from:

$sql = "SELECT * \n";
$sql .= "FROM main,users,templates,sections \n";
$sql .= "WHERE main.mainsecid=sections.secid AND main.maintemplid=templates.templid AND main.mainmid='1' AND main.mainusid='$user' \n";
$sql .= "ORDER BY pdate DESC, ptime DESC\n";
$sql .- "LIMIT 0,6"

2) You should only select the fields you'e going to use. It can often speed up the query and it will be less of a memory hog that way.

[LordShryku]

I have a couple points as well...
1) $row[title]. You should use quotes around your array elements, otherwise, you'll get E_NOTICEs.
2) Indent...
3) Maybe it's just my preference, or maybe it's a standard, I dunno, so take it how you want, but methinks functions should return something.
I usually avoid just echoing from the function, and in this case, would probably return the array.
Just so if you need to use it later, you don't have to call the function again.

[vaska]

thanks very much for the input...i'm here to learn so i don't mind any of the comments one bit...

i guess the the point where you realize that you might not be such a huge newb is when you become really interested in trying to do things the "right" way...even though there isn't necessarily such a thing, but i think everybody knows generally what that means...

v

🙂

[Weedpacket]

If the only fields that you're using in the tables are 'title' and 'text', then ask for just title and text: * will give you every field of all four tables - which will probably hurt the DBMS's attempts at optimising the query as well as put extra unnecessary load on the connection.

[drawmack]

one time I said "select * from weedpacket" and my head exploded 😃

[vaska]

i know it's pretty mundane stuff to you guys, but writing functions in this style is a new thing to me and i never tried it before because i thought it would be too difficult (but i was wrong)...i've had time lately to really just explore different ways of doing things...

i've been focusing on how to basically do things with less code...or with smarter code...i left my book back in the states, but i think i'm about to buy a new one since i think i'm ready to go much deeper with all of this stuff...

much fun, thanks...v