[RESOLVED] failing to retrieve data that DOES exist ! doh..

[thunderstorm]

I am constructing a form for a user to enter race results. the results are stored in a table called 'results', and i have two other tables, 'member' and 'race'(holding race name, race date, etc)

the results table requires the member_no and race_no (the primary keys from the other two tables, in results they are a composite key)

however obviously cant expect user to remember numbers,so i wanted to allow them to enter a members last name, then pull the member_no and assign it to a variable, do the same with the race_name and race_date to idenitify the race_no, then finally use those variables to insert the member_no and race_no into the results table along with the time.

im mega new to php and mysql, so i dont even know how to have drop downs or how to validate date and time entries so im stuck with the default YYYY-MM-DD and 00:00:00 🙁, but even this is not working- i can enter the data pefectly as shown in the mysql tables, but it keeps saying that the member AND race do not exist.

the code for getting the member_no from the last_name entered on the form and the race_no from the race_name and race_date entered on the form is

		// make query to get the member_no

	$query_memberno = "SELECT member_no FROM member WHERE last_name = '$ln'";
	$member_result = mysql_query($query_memberno); // run the query

	if($row['member_no'] ==  0)
	{		
		echo "Error: That member does not exist in the database, please try again.";
		// return them to form
	}
		else
	{
		$row = mysql_fetch_assoc($member_result);		
		$member_no = $row['member_no']; 			
	}


	// make query to get the race_no

	$query_raceno = "SELECT race_no FROM race WHERE race_name = '$rn' AND race_date = '$rd'";
	$race_result = mysql_query($query_raceno); // run the query

	if($row['race_no'] ==  0)
	{		
		echo "Error: That race does not exist in the database, please try again.";
		// return them to form	
	}
		else
	{
		$row = mysql_fetch_assoc($race_result);		
		$race_no = $row['race_no']; 
	}

is there anything wrong with this? it keeps automatically throwing the error straight away... i know this isnt a really good way to do this at all, but its all i can do , if you have any suggestions or links to similar improved examples i would be grateful, but i really want to know why the above will not work.. 😕
thanks!

[Piranha]

When running code it will do the first row first, then the second row, then the third and so on. In the 6th row you have an if-statement:

        if($row['member_no'] ==  0) 

But $row haven't been set yet, it is not set until the 13th row. In other words it will not work.

A solution is to see how many rows is returned from the query. It would work something like this:

        if(mysql_num_rows($member_result) == 0)

Of course you have to do the same with the other query.

[thunderstorm]

thanks, amazing 🙂

[bradgrafelman]

Don't forget to mark this thread resolved.