I am trying to delete a row off my db as well as a file. I can get the script to delete a row, but the file still remains.

In my db I have a field titled "file" this field stores just the name of the file.
The actual file is stored in a subdirectory called "media"

Now in my admin section I created a list all page (list.php) which allows admins to update or delete a row.

When the admin clicks on the "delete" hyperlink - the page calls for delete.php

The delete.php has this code:

<?php
session_start();
if(!session_is_registered(myusername)){
header("location:login.php");
}

include("includes/config.inc.php");

// Connect to server and select databse.
mysql_connect("$host", "$username", "$password")or die("cannot connect"); 
mysql_select_db("$db_name")or die("cannot select DB");

// get value of id that sent from address bar *This is from the list.php page
$id=$_GET['id'];
// Delete data in mysql from row that has this id 
$sql="DELETE FROM $tbl_name WHERE id='$id'";
$result=mysql_query($sql);

// if successfully deleted
if($result){
echo "Deleted Successfully";
echo "<BR>";
echo "<a href='list.php'>Back to main page</a>";
}

else {
echo "ERROR";
}

// close connection 
mysql_close();

?>

I know that I am to use the unlink command:

$file = "../media/['file']";
unlink($file);

But how do I Get the $file value to reflect the value from the field?

    You're going to have to perform a SELECT query before you DELETE the row so that you can retrieve this 'file' column.

      Ok let me see if I have this straight... Let's say "file" is my field name in my table...
      Would my new code be?

      $id=$_GET['id'];
$sql="SELECT file FROM $tbl_name WHERE id='$id'";
$result=mysql_query($sql);
$file = "../media/[$result]";
unlink($file);

$sql="DELETE FROM $tbl_name WHERE id='$id'";
$result=mysql_query($sql);

// if successfully deleted
if($result){
echo "Deleted Successfully";
echo "<BR>";
echo "<a href='list.php'>Back to main page</a>";
}

else {
echo "ERROR";
}

// close connection 
mysql_close();

        1. $result is a MySQL resource, not a string of text. To actually retrieve data, you must use one of the fuctions that fetches data using the resource returned from mysql_query(). In this case, you could use [man]mysql_result/man since you only want 1 column from 1 row.

        2. There's no reason to add []'s around the variable in the file path... these will simply appear literally in the string, breaking the file path.

          I tried this and still not working;

          $result = mysql_query('SELECT file FROM $tbl_name WHERE id=$id');
$file = "../media/$result";

          The above $file is the path to my subdirectory where the media file resides. The $result value should be the query that we ran in the previous line. So if I select file (which is my field name) FROM $tbl_name (my table) WHERE id=$id (this is from the previous page - this is the id row I am trying to get the value from the file field and plug it into the $result. I can't unlink the file until I assign the file to be unlinked.

          unlink($file);

          What would be the right code?

            This works, but is there an easier way of writing this code?

            <?php
include("includes/config.inc.php");

// Connect to server and select databse.
mysql_connect("$host", "$username", "$password")or die("cannot connect"); 
mysql_select_db("$db_name")or die("cannot select DB");

// get value of id that sent from address bar 
$id=$_GET['id'];

// First query - unlink media file from subdirectory
$sql="SELECT * FROM $tbl_name WHERE id='$id'";
$result=mysql_query($sql);
$rows=mysql_fetch_array($result);
$target="../mp3/";
$file=$rows['file'];
$path="$target$file";
unlink($path);
?>

              Ok now I think I have it... After many hours of trial and error my final code is:

              <?php
session_start();
if(!session_is_registered(myusername)){
header("location:login.php");
}
include("includes/config.inc.php");

// Connect to server and select databse.
mysql_connect("$host", "$username", "$password")or die("cannot connect"); 
mysql_select_db("$db_name")or die("cannot select DB");

// get value of id that is sent from address bar
$id = intval($_GET['id']);

// First query - fetch file name
$sql = "SELECT file FROM ".$tbl_name." WHERE id=".$id;
$result = mysql_query($sql) or die("SQL Error: ".mysql_error());

if (mysql_num_rows($result) > 0) {
  $rows = mysql_fetch_array($result);

// Unlink media file from subdirectory
  $path = "../mp3/".$rows['file'];
  unlink($path);
  echo "Deleted mp3 file Successfully";
}

// Delete data in mysql from row that has this id 
$sql="DELETE FROM" .$tbl_name. "WHERE id=".$id;
$result = mysql_query($sql) or die("SQL Error: ".mysql_error());

// if successfully deleted
if($result){
echo "Deleted Successfully";
echo "<BR>";
echo "<a href='list.php'>Back to main page</a>";
}

else {
echo "ERROR";
}

// close connection 
mysql_close();
?>
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