while loop in a foreach loop.... semi-results!

[suttercain]

Good evening fellow insomniacs.

I am echoing a mysql database result which is stored in the database as such "Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, etc"

I am using the explode to split the into an array using the comma as the delimiter.

Then I am trying to get it so if I click on Superman I am taken to the Superman profile page... Batman I go to the Batman profile page.

This is the code I am using:

if ($row['characters'] == !NULL) {
			  $people = explode (", ", $row['characters']);
			  echo "<b>CHARACTER(S):</b><br><font color='#263B5A'>" ;
			  sort ($people);
			  foreach ($people as $key=> $val) {
			  $rez = mysql_query ("SELECT name, character_id FROM characters");
			  while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($rez)){
			  echo "<a href='view_characters.php?id={$row['character_id']}'>" . $val . "</a><br>";
					}
				}
			  echo "</font><br><br>";
			  }

It echos out the following:

Batman <---Link to id 1 //Not Correct
Batman <---Link to id 2 // Correct
Batman <---Link to id 3 //Not Correct (No link to 3 should even appear)
Superman <---Link to id 1 // Correct
Superman <---Link to id 2 //Not Correct
Superman <---Link to id 3 //Not Correct (No link to 3 should even appear)

which is partually correct... but I want it to echo each only 1 time:
Batman
Superman (not three times each)

It feels like I am so close but I can't get it.

Any advice or suggestions?

Thanks

[bradgrafelman]

Can you show us more of the code? It looks like you're looping through the database two times.. a loop within a loop... which you shouldn't need at all.

Explain what you're trying to do, and we'll see if there isnt' a better way to go about doing this.