returning empty string

gwbouge

I've been staring at this code all day and it's driving me nuts. I'm putting together a forum, and trying to get it to display when the last post in the section was made, and by who.

$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$database = "forum";

mysql_connect(localhost,$username,$password);
@mysql_select_db($database) or die("Unable to select database");
$query = "SELECT * FROM general WHERE last='lastpost'";
$result=mysql_query($query);
$row=mysql_fetch_row($result);

$lastlog = explode(' ',$row[0]);
$lastlogdate = $lastlog[0];
$lastlogtime = $lastlog[1];

$bywho = $row[1];

echo "<font face=Tahoma size=-1 color=\"#dddddd\">Last Post:<br></font><font face=Verdana size=-1 color=\"#ffffff\">",$lastlogdate,", ",$lastlogtime,"<br><br></font><font face=Tahoma size=-1 color=\"#dddddd\">Posted By:<br></font><font face=Verdana size=-1 color=\"#ffffff\">",$bywho,"</font>";

mysql_close();

the first column in the table contains a timestamp made with the NOW() function, the second column is text. the third column simply contains 'lastpost', just so I can find it. I've checked multiple times, and all three columns contain the data they should, but the $lastlog and $bywho variables are all returning an empty string.

I've used this code on another section of the page, to display member information, and it works fine.

Running Apache 2.0.54, PHP 5.0.4, and MySQL 4.1.12

any ideas?

edcellgavin

just to be certain, try printing out the number of records returned by your query.

gwbouge

I've tried adding

echo $result;

as well as

$num=mysql_numrows($result);
echo $num;

and neither returns anything. but, when I run

SELECT * FROM general WHERE last='lastpost';

in MySQL, it returns what I wanted.

jburbage

what output is your script giving you? none at all? or just the HTML, with no variables?

gwbouge

the echo that spits out the font tags and the "Last Post:" and stuff spits out the html, but nothing at all where the variables are.

when I just try to echo the variables, it gives me nothing.

see for yourself:
srs.rules.it

edcellgavin

perhaps it (code) doesn't get there? perhaps that's why your 'echo' staements aren't executing? are there conditional statements that must be satisfied in order to get to the query?

gwbouge

nope, no conditionals.

UGH ... I'm a freakin idiot. never granted access to the table. that's like the 3rd time I've spent 4 or more hours rackin my brain on something because I didn't have the priviledges. always forgettin the stupid things.

sorry guys. thanks for the help, anyways.