Outputting a while stament from a db query into an email

[mcweb]

Hi,

I have the following code which produces a page which lists the differences between two tables. It outputs correctly (although as a newbie, the code is very very messy):

//query to compare translations from two tables 

$compare_translations = "select $table2.Project, $table2.Notes, $table2.Name FROM $table2 LEFT JOIN $table ON $table2.Name=$table.Name WHERE $table.Name IS NULL AND $table2.Task_type='translations'"; 

//executes query 
                    if (!($connection = @ mysql_connect($hostName, $username, $password))) 
                        die("Could not connect to database"); 

                if (!mysql_select_db($databaseName, $connection)) 
                        showerror(); 

                if (!($translations_result = @ mysql_query ($compare_translations, $connection))) 
                        showerror(); 

//Displays Translation changes 
                $trans = @ mysql_fetch_array($translations_result); 
                $trans = $trans["Name"]; 
                if (!empty($trans)) 
                { 
                mysql_data_seek($translations_result, 0); 
                echo "The <b>TRANSLATIONS </b>for the following projects have beed added/edited:<br>";     

                $value = ' '; 
                while ($translations = @ mysql_fetch_array($translations_result)) 
                    { 
                        if ($value != $translations["Project"]) 
                        { 
                            echo "- ".$translations["Project"]."<br>"; 
                            $value = $translations["Project"]; 
                        } 
                    } 
            echo "<br>The additions/changes are as follows:<br>"; 
            $value = ' '; 
            mysql_data_seek($translations_result, 0); 
                while ($translations = @ mysql_fetch_array($translations_result)) 
                        { 
                            if ($value != $translations["Project"]) 
                                { 
                                    echo "<b><br><u>Project: ".$translations["Project"]."</u></b><br>"; 
                                    $value = $translations["Project"]; 
                                } 
                            //if ($translations["Notes"] != null) 
                            if(!empty($translations["Notes"])) 
                                { 
                                    echo "<br><b><i>".$translations["Notes"]."</i></b><br>"; 
                                } 
                            echo $translations["Name"]."<br>"; 
                    } 
                    echo "<br><hr><br>"; 
            } 

However, instead of outputing onto a page which it currently does, I want the output to be within an email.

I know when sending an email you can assign the body of the mail as e.g. $message. so therefore, I could replace echos with a variable and then concatenate them like $message.$message1 etc., however, as the while statment produces alist, this does not work as it only gives you one value, i.e the last in the loop:

//query to compare translations from two tables 

$compare_translations = "select $table2.Project, $table2.Notes, $table2.Name FROM $table2 LEFT JOIN $table ON $table2.Name=$table.Name WHERE $table.Name IS NULL AND $table2.Task_type='translations'"; 

//executes query 
                    if (!($connection = @ mysql_connect($hostName, $username, $password))) 
                        die("Could not connect to database"); 

                if (!mysql_select_db($databaseName, $connection)) 
                        showerror(); 

                if (!($translations_result = @ mysql_query ($compare_translations, $connection))) 
                        showerror(); 

//Displays Translation changes 
                $trans = @ mysql_fetch_array($translations_result); 
                $trans = $trans["Name"]; 
                if (!empty($trans)) 
                { 
                mysql_data_seek($translations_result, 0); 
                $message = "The <b>TRANSLATIONS </b>for the following projects have beed added/edited:<br>";     

                $value = ' '; 
                while ($translations = @ mysql_fetch_array($translations_result)) 
                    { 
                        if ($value != $translations["Project"]) 
                        { 
                            $message1 = "- ".$translations["Project"]."<br>"; 
                            $value = $translations["Project"]; 
                        } 
                    } 
            $message2 = "<br>The additions/changes are as follows:<br>"; 
            $value = ' '; 
            mysql_data_seek($translations_result, 0); 
                while ($translations = @ mysql_fetch_array($translations_result)) 
                        { 
                            if ($value != $translations["Project"]) 
                                { 
                                    echo "<b><br><u>Project: ".$translations["Project"]."</u></b><br>"; 
                                    $value = $translations["Project"]; 
                                } 
                            //if ($translations["Notes"] != null) 
                            if(!empty($translations["Notes"])) 
                                { 
                                    $message3 = "<br><b><i>".$translations["Notes"]."</i></b><br>"; 
                                } 
                            $message4 = $translations["Name"]."<br>"; 
                    } 
                    echo "<br><hr><br>"; 
            } 

I have searched the web for days looking for an answer and I am none the wiser, if anyone can help I would very much appreciate it as I am starting to have sleepless nights!!

Thanks

[devinemke]

you should really use the concatenation operator ('.') to construct the message:

$message = 'this is part of the message';
$message .= ' this is another part of the message';
$message .= ' this is yet another part of the message';

echo $message;