populating MySQL data into a form to allow changes to database

[nogeekyet]

I need to populate an html form from MySQL db in order to allow the user to make changes to the existing data on the db. Going from the form to the db is no problem. The problem is I don't know how to go from the db to the form (not table, I know how to do that). Any help?

Thanks in advance.

[jim_keller]

I'm assuming that your HTML and PHP are in the same file, so going from the DB to your form would look something like this:

<?php

//connect to database here

$id = $_REQUEST['id'];

//Assuming that the ID has to be a number. If not , take the following lines out, 
//but make sure you verify that the ID is SQL safe. 
if ( !is_numeric($id) ) {
  exit( 'invalid ID');
}

$sql_query = "SELECT * FROM myTable WHERE id={$id}";
$result = mysql_query($sql_query);
$row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result);
?>

<form action="?" method="POST">
First Name: <input type="text" name="first_name" value="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($row['first_name']); ?>" />
<br />
Last Name: <input type="text" name="last_name" value="<?php echo htmlspecialchars($row['last_name']); ?>" />

</form>

essentially, you just need to set the value attribute to the value you pulled from the DB. Pass it through htmlspecialchars first or you'll run into problems with double quotes.

[nogeekyet]

I will try that a bit later - when the rain stops in Mexifornia. I thought it had to be something like that but I did not the syntax.

Thank you very much.