[RESOLVED] Problem with conditional statement

Mechaworx

I am having a problem with an "if/else" statement.

I have two tables, an articles table for news articles and a comments table for comments on news articles from the articles table. The tables share a common field "aid".

If there are comments in the comments table that corresponds to the ID of an article in the articles table then I would want all comments to be displayed. Else I would want a "No Comments" message to be displayed. Below is the code of how I set this up.

//First grab the associated article id from the index page link and display the full article on this page
	$id = $_GET['aid'];

//build the sql to grab the data in the articles table in mysql
$sqlCommand = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM articles WHERE aid='$id'");

//loop through the data in the articles table
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($sqlCommand)){
$id = $row['aid'];
$catid = $row['catid'];
$title = $row['title'];
$pic = $row['picURL'];
$picAlt = $row['picALT'];
$picTitle = $row['picTitle'];
$content = $row['article_body'];
$date = $row['reported_date'];

$formID = 'cicadas_details.php?aid='.$id;//echo this variable created so that users can post comments to a particular article since the form is below
}

//build the sql to grab the data in the comments table if a comment exists for this article id in mysql
$sqlComments = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM comments WHERE aid='$id' ORDER BY cid") or die(mysql_error());
$total_rows = mysql_num_rows($sqlComments); //Grab the total number of comments based on this article id

//loop through the data in the comments table and grab all the comments with the same id.
$displayComments = "";
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($sqlComments)){
$caid = $row['aid'];
$name = $row['name'];
$email = $row['email'];
$cmtDate = $row['comments_date'];
$website = $row['website'];
$comment = $row['comments_body'];

//build the html content to display all comments on the page if comments exist
if($id == $caid){
$displayComments .= "<ul><li><b>Posted By</b>: <span>$name</span></li><li><b>On</b>: $cmtDate</li><li><b>Website</b>: $website</li></ul><p>$comment</p>";
//display this on the html page if no comments exist
}else {
$displayComments .= "<ul><li>Sorry no comments have been posted to this article. Be the first.</li></ul>";
}
}

The "if" part of the conditional statement works but the "else part" statement doesn't display the above "No Comments" message and I get no indication of errors.

Am I going about this in the right way?

Thanks for any help.

Thanks
Gerry

Pikachu2000

If no results are retrieved, the while loop doesn't run therefore your conditional is never reached. Check to see how many records are returned with mysql_num_rows() instead, then base your conditional on that value.

Mechaworx

Hi,

Thanks for your response and help. I actually tried that previously with the same results. Below is the code example I tried for the if / else statement.

//build the html content to display all comments on the page if comments exist
	if (mysql_num_rows ($sqlComments) > 0){
	$displayComments .= "<ul><li><b>Posted By</b>: <span>$name</span></li><li><b>On</b>: $cmtDate</li><li><b>Website</b>: $website</li></ul><p>$comment</p>";
	//display this on the html page if no comments exist
	}else {
	$displayComments .= "<ul><li>Sorry no comments have been posted to this article. Be the first.</li></ul>";
}

Am I using (mysql_num_rows) in the right way?

Thanks!

Mechaworx

I think I resolved this problem by encasing the while loop in the if statement. PHP code below:

//build the sql to grab the data in the comments table if a comment exists for this article id in mysql
	$sqlComments = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM comments WHERE aid='$id' ORDER BY cid") or die(mysql_error());
	$total_rows = mysql_num_rows($sqlComments); //Grab the total number of comments based on this article id
	if (mysql_num_rows ($sqlComments) > 0){ //if there are comments then loop through them and grab all the comments with the same id.
	$displayComments = "";
	while($row = mysql_fetch_array($sqlComments)){
	$caid = $row['aid'];
	$name = $row['name'];
	$email = $row['email'];
	$cmtDate = $row['comments_date'];
	$website = $row['website'];
	$comment = $row['comments_body'];

//build the html content to display all comments on the page if comments exist
$displayComments .= "<ul><li><b>Posted By</b>: <span>$name</span></li><li><b>On</b>: $cmtDate</li><li><b>Website</b>: $website</li></ul><p>$comment</p>";
}
//display this on the html page if no comments exist
}else  {
$displayComments = "<ul><li>Sorry no comments have been posted to this article. Be the first by filling out the form below.</li></ul>";
}

I have tested this in several different ways and I get no errors. So all seems to be working. If this is sound, please let me know and I will resolve this thread.

Thanks for the help.

johanafm

Yes, that is how you have to do it. Both this code and your previous code are syntactically correct. But the previous had a logical error, since that while loop is never entered when the db contains no comments.