Isset Variable problem

[MJohnson]

All right, I have been working on this problem for several hours now to no avail. Basically what I have is a page that calls sponsors at random from a database.
Now, there is also a State search where you choose a state and the address is automatically loaded for you.

When the search is done, the client wants the sponsors to only be from that state. When there is a state searched, the code does pull sponsors from that state, but it pulls nothing when the search hasn't been performed.

What I have for the sponsors page is this:

        if (isset($_GET['state'])) {

            $state = $_GET['state'];

            $aq = mysql_query("SELECT name,link,description,date FROM sponsors WHERE enabled = 'Y' AND state = '$state' ORDER BY rand() LIMIT 10");
            $ar = mysql_num_rows($aq);
            $ac = 0;
                               }
    else {
    $aq = mysql_query("SELECT name,link,description,date FROM sponsors WHERE enabled = 'Y' and ORDER BY rand() LIMIT 10");
    $ar = mysql_num_rows($aq);
    $ac = 0;
    }
    while($ac < $ar) {
            $name = mysql_result($aq,$ac,'name');
            $link = mysql_result($aq,$ac,'link');
            $desc = mysql_result($aq,$ac,'description');

            echo "<span class='smallTXT'><a href='$link' alt='$desc' target='_Blank' class='smallTXT'>$name<p></span>";
            $ac++;
    }

Yet I recieve no sponsers called, as if the $_GET('state') is always set.

Any ideas?

Also, the search isn't posted like a form. In case you need it, this is the code:

$sres = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM state ORDER BY state_code ASC");
        $srow = mysql_num_rows($sres);
        $scoo = 0;

    echo "<select name='site' size=1 onChange='javascript:formHandler()' class='FormFields' tabindex='1' hspace='3'>";
    echo "<option value='00' selected>SELECT YOUR STATE</option>";

    while($scoo < $srow) {
            $s_code = mysql_result($sres,$scoo,'state_code');
            $state = mysql_result($sres,$scoo,'state_name');

            echo "<option value='?p=search&search=state&state=$s_code'>$state</option>";

            $scoo++;
    }

    echo "</select>";

[planetsim]

isset only checks whether a variables is set it doesnt need to have a value as long as the value is true e.g.

$GET['state'] = true;
$GET['state'] = 1;

are all valid even

$_GET['state'] = '';

You may want to use !empty($_GET['state']

Also do some checking on the state data at the moment you are vunerable to a SQL injection.

[MJohnson]

I can't use the empty command because both the search and the sponsors call are on the same page, so the sponsors would never be able to see that a state was called.

Do you have any other ideas?