Update form created web page if a certain text area is used

[big-dog]

Newbie Here.
Is ther a way to update a page based on a text area in a form.
I have a form that has two text areas one is for asking question of admin and the other is for public to see (Testimonial).
What I need is if the user fills out the form and uses the Testimonial text area
then the page is updated. If the question text area is used it doesnt update the page. In other words if the Testimonial text area is left blank the page doenst update. See code below

mysql_connect(localhost,$username,$password);
@mysql_select_db($database) or die( "Unable to select database");
$sql = 'SELECT Testimonial , First_Name , Last_Name , Company , City , State , Date FROM Comments ORDER BY Date DESC LIMIT 0, 30 ';

$result=mysql_query($sql);

$num=mysql_numrows($result);
if ($num==0) {
}else{

}
mysql_close();

$i=0;
while ($i < $num) {

$Testimonial=mysql_result($result,$i,"Testimonial");
$First_Name=mysql_result($result,$i,"First_Name");
$Last_Name=mysql_result($result,$i,"Last_Name");
$Company=mysql_result($result,$i,"Company");
$City=mysql_result($result,$i,"City");
$State=mysql_result($result,$i,"State");
$Date=mysql_result($result,$i,"Date");
echo "<b>$Testimonial<br>$First_Name $Last_Name $Company $City $State<br><hr>";

$i++;
}

?>

[bradgrafelman]

One problem I notice is that you close the connection to the MySQL server before you retrieve any data from it in the loop. Hard to retrieve data from a server you've disconnected from 😉

Also... wouldn't it be easier to simply do this:

$sql = 'SELECT Testimonial , First_Name , Last_Name , Company , City , State , Date FROM Comments ORDER BY Date DESC LIMIT 0, 30 '; 
$result=mysql_query($sql); 

while($data = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
    echo "<b>{$data['Testimonial']}<br>{$data['First_Name']} {$data['Last_Name']} {$data['Company']} {$data['City']} {$data['State']}<br><hr>";
}

[big-dog]

bradgrafelman
I replaced the code I had with yours and it seemed to do the same thing as mine.
I will try and study it and figure out what its doing excactly because it is alot less code.
But my origanal ? still is how do I get it to update the webpage only if the Testimonial text area has something in it.