question about in_array

bitt3n

If I use the following code, I get the error 'Wrong datatype for second argument' on the conditional (last) line:

$query = "SELECT first_name, last_name FROM users WHERE location='$test'";
$result = mysql_query ($query) or trigger_error("Query: $query\n<br />MySQL Error: " . mysql_error());

$test_array = mysql_fetch_array ($result, MYSQL_ASSOC);
if (in_array("Ray", $test_array['first_name'])) echo('<p>IN ARRAY</p>');

if I remove ['first_name'] from the conditional line, I get the correct result. This confuses me, because I understand that $test_array is a two dimensional array, consisting of a two member array containing as values user_name and location, both of which are an array of data. If I leave out ['user_name'] it seems that I am referring to the two-dimensional array, when I want to refer only to the first_name column, so that I do not get a match with the last_name column (which may contain "Ray").

How can I refer to the first_name column only, without getting the 'Wrong data type for second argument' error?

Thanks!

RyanJones

$test_array in this case is a single dimensional array I believe, use print_r() to check that out 🙂

Cheers,

Ryan Jones

bitt3n

RyanJones wrote:
$test_array in this case is a single dimensional array I believe, use print_r() to check that out 🙂

how about that.

so now my question is, how do I determine that a specific value is in a specific field of the array? That is I want to know that "Ray" is in the first_name field of the array, and not the last_name field, but if I just use in_array(), I will get a positive result either way.

Thanks for your help.

laserlight

Why not change the SQL statement instead, e.g.

SELECT first_name, last_name FROM users WHERE location='$test' AND first_name='Ray'

If you have several first_name values to test with, you could use:

SELECT first_name, last_name FROM users WHERE location='$test' AND first_name IN ('Ray', 'Andrew', 'Bernard')