[Resolved] Query Result Issues

[bpat1434]

Hello.

I'm running a query on my database, and what I want to happen is that "if" the query fails or does not return anything, then it sets a variable, which is later read, with a type of "system" message that I want.

Problem is, I've tried using

if(!$result){
//set the variable
}

// I've also tried
if($result != 'true'){
// set the variable
}

What seems to happen is that if I use the first example, then the variables don't get set. If I use the second example, I get the variables set, and everything works fine, except that where I do have data in the database, it won't show it.

Here's some code:

global $dbc;

$query = "SELECT * FROM `main_news` ORDER BY `id` DESC LIMIT 3";
$result = mysql_query($query, $dbc);

if($result != 'true'){
	$news = '<h2>News</h2>'."\n".
	'<div class="news-wrap">'."\n".
	'<p class="nItem">No news items were found.</p>'."\n".
	'</div>'."\n";
}
else{
	while($display = mysql_fetch_array($result)){
		$id = $display['id'];
		$title = $display['Title'];
		$short = $display['Intro'];

	$news = '<div class="news-wrap">'."\n".
			'<h2>'.$title.'</h2>'."\n".
			'<p class="nItem">'.$short.'<br />'."\n".
			'<a href="http://www.winfieldvfd.org/read.php?cat=news&id='.$id.'">Read More...</a></p>'."\n".
			'</div>'."\n";
}
}

Thanks for any help you guys can give me.

~Brett

[devinemke]

$query = 'SELECT * FROM main_news ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT 3';
$result = mysql_query($query, $dbc) or exit(mysql_error());

if (!mysql_num_row($result))
{
	echo 'No news items were found';
}
else
{
	// loop thru results
}

[robert_w_ark]

/* Replace this */

$result = mysql_query($query, $dbc); 

/* with this */

$result = mysql_query($query, $dbc) or die(mysql_error());

If theres an sql error, you can find it using this.

[bpat1434]

Thanks Devin.
I'll try that first.

Robert, the reason I don't want to use an "or die()" is because mainly when I do that it stops EVERYTHING (not what I want). I need it to just find out if there are entries or not. So Thanks for the help anyway.

~Brett