Hyperlink text in PHP

nubs

What i;m trying to do is:

return the name of a brand of car e.g. FORD from a field named carname
and display the name 'FORD' which is hyperlinked using a hyperlink returned from the 'carwebsiteurl' field in the database.

Ive got the following so far... but i just can't figure it out

<?php

mysql_connect("domain", "DBUSERNAME", "DBPASSWORD");
mysql_select_db("DBNAME");

$sql = 'SELECT * FROM cartable';
$finalurl = <a href='$row[carwebsiteurl]'>$row[carname]</a>;
echo $finalurl;

sneakyimp

You need to check for errors when you connect and select a db:

mysql_connect("domain", "DBUSERNAME", "DBPASSWORD")
  or die("Could not connect:" . mysql_error());
mysql_select_db("DBNAME")
  or die("Could not select db:" . mysql_error());

Also, you define your $sql and then never actually use it to query the database. THEN you refer to a var $row which has never been defined. After defining your $sql var, you need to use it with [man]mysql_query[/man]:

$result = mysql_query($sql)
  or die("Query failed:" . mysql_error());
$row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)
  or die("mysql_fetch_assoc failed to return anything.");

Cokemonkey11

$finalurl = <a href='$row[carwebsiteurl]'>$row[carname]</a>;
echo $finalurl;

should be

printf('<a href='"&#37;s">%s</a>',$row[carwebsiteurl],$row[carname]);

correct me if I'm wrong.

sneakyimp

Well, firstly we are not sure because we don't know what the actual database field name is.

Secondly, your code has an extra single quote in it and the associative keys used on row need quotes around them. also, you don't have to use printf in PHP. if carwebsiteurl and carname are the actual correct associative keys, then this would work:

$finalurl = '<a href="' . $row['carwebsiteurl'] . '">' . $row['carname'] . '</a>';
echo $finalurl;

EDIT: had to add second " in the finalurl value.

Cokemonkey11

I was under the impression that you never had to use printf or echo and that they were interchangeable.

And if the only problem was a loss of a quote, I'd reccomend a better editor such as notepad++ or gedit.

bradgrafelman

Cokemonkey11;10911581 wrote:
printf or echo and that they were interchangeable.

Well, not really; [man]print[/man] and [man]echo[/man] are similar, though.

And just to offer an alternative, slightly shorter way of doing it:

echo "<a href='$row[carwebsiteurl]'>$row[carname]</a>";