how to ignore table connection failures?

stubarny

Hi,

I have some php code that looks up a database table. The table name used in the query varies (i have different tables for different countries) and sometimes there isn't a match. (e.g. i have no table set up for zimbabwe)

this isn't a problem because if no data is returned from the table query i just use default values.

However, when a table query fails (e.g. for zimbabwe) the php script is abandoned automatically at that point. How can I over-ride this so that the rest of my script is processed normally?

Thanks for your help!

Stu

p.s. im on a shared hosting package so can't change any installation defaults

rincewind456

Without seeing any code I can only assume that in the case of an sql error you have "or die() " as part of the query string.

If that is the case then change it to an if statement, something like if no result do something.

MarkR

The correct way to do it is not refer to different tables for different countries. This is a poor database design.

Instead, add a country (better still, country code / ID) column, and use that as part of the key (or perhaps part of a unique index if you have some other key) on the table.

Mark

MarkR

I'm assuming you have error_reporting(E_ALL) and some error handler which automatically aborts the script in some way when an error happens.

You would have to temporarily lower the error reporting level. This is extremely ugly:

 $old_error_reporting = error_reporting();
 error_reporting($old_error_reporting & ~ E_WARNING); // Say we want to ignore warnings temporarily
 // do stuff which legitimately generates a warning
 error_reporting($old_error_reporting); // Put error_reporting back to what it should be

However, I still stand by my statement that having different tables is poor design.

Mark

stubarny

Thanks for your help.

I'll redesign with just one table as suggested and add an extra index column for the country names.

I was trying to reduce processing time by having smaller tables but I suppose I went a bit OTT in this case seeing as each table will only have 20 rows.

Thanks,

Stu