[Resolved] How do you....

[tom_s]

When a user signs up for a forum on my site, how can I check that a forum with the same name does'nt already exist in the database?

I have created a table called 'forumnames', and when a new forum is created, a new entry is made in that table, with the same value as the forum name.

Currently, it looks something like this

main1 --> forumnames --> name --> [whatever forums called]

main1 is the name of the database.

When a user tries to create a forum, how do I check that one with same name doesn't already exist?

Also, I'm running PHP4 on apache, using mySQL.

Thanks,

• Tom

[vallette]

Just do a select looking for the name:
SELECT * FROM forumnames WHERE name='$newforumname'

If the returned row count is greater then 0 then the name already exists in the table

[Sxooter]

Better yet, use a unique index (or primary key) to enforce this, then just catch the error after trying to create the forum.

[TheDefender]

I know this is probably anal-retentive, but I usually do both ;-) I just don't like to take any chances... no matter how great or small...

[tom_s]

Originally posted by vallette
Just do a select looking for the name:
SELECT * FROM forumnames WHERE name='$newforumname'

If the returned row count is greater then 0 then the name already exists in the table

Sorry, another n00bish question here, how do I check if the row count is bigger than 0?

if (?? > 0){

blah

}
else
{

more blah

};

--
This is my code:

//Query to see whether forum with same name exists.

$query = "SELECT * FROM forumnames WHERE name='$fname'";
$result = mysql_query($query) or die("Query failed : " . mysql_error());
$data = mysql_fetch_array($result, $server);

Thanks for the help

[TheDefender]

if (mysql_num_rows($result) > 0){ 

blah 

} 
else 
{ 

more blah 

}; 

[tom_s]

Thanks, worked great. Appreciate the help.

[TheDefender]

No problem... Be sure to mark this thread resolved.