parse error

[toney85]

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_CONSTANT_ENCAPSED_STRING in /home/fathersh/public_html/selectdata.php on line 29 in bold

<?php
$con = mysql_connect("localhost","","");
if (!$con)
  {
  die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
  }

mysql_select_db("", $con)'or die ("Unable to select database: " . mysql_error())";

$query = "SELECT file_number, first_name, middle_name, last_name, birthdate
          FROM child_info";

$result = mysql_query($query);


if(!$result)
	{
 		echo "There was a problem getting the data";
	}
else if(!$result)
	{
		echo "There were no results";
	}
else
	{
		echo "<b><center>Database Output</center></b><br><br>\n";
while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
	{
		[B]echo "<b>{$row['file_number']}-name{$row['first_name']}-name2</b><br>\n";[/B]
		echo "{$row['middle_name']}-name<br>\n";
		echo "{$row['last_name']}-name<br>\n";
		echo "{$row['birthdate']}-name<hr><br>\n";

	}
}
mysql_close();
?>

[NogDog]

The actual error is higher up (which you'll see once I change your post to use our nifty [noparse]

[/noparse] tags ;) ).
This line had some extraneous quote characters in it:
[code=php]
mysql_select_db("", $con) or die ("Unable to select database: " . mysql_error());

[toney85]

this is the current code all I get is Database Output on the page

<?php
$con = mysql_connect("localhost","user","pass");
if (!$con)
  {
  die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
  }

mysql_select_db("fathersh_childsearch", $con);

$query = "SELECT file_number, first_name, middle_name, last_name, birthdate
          FROM child_info";

$result = mysql_query($query);


if(!$result)
	{
 		echo "There was a problem getting the data";
	}
else if(!$result)
	{
		echo "There were no results";
	}
else
	{
		echo "<b><center>Database Output</center></b><br><br>\n";
while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
	{
		echo "<b>{$row['file_number']}-name{$row['first_name']}-name2</b><br>\n";
		echo "{$row['middle_name']}-name<br>\n";
		echo "{$row['last_name']}-name<br>\n";
		echo "{$row['birthdate']}-name<hr><br>\n";

	}
}
mysql_close();
?>

[bradgrafelman]

EDIT: When posting PHP code, please use the board's [noparse]

..

[/noparse] bbcode tags as they make your code much easier to read and analyze.

One problem I see is here:

    if(!$result) 
        { 
                echo "There was a problem getting the data"; 
        } 
    else if(!$result) 
        { 
            echo "There were no results"; 
        } 

Note that the two if() conditions are exactly the same. Moreover, the echo in the second if() statement suggests that you should be using something like [man]mysql_num_rows/man in the if() condition.

Fix that, and see if you get the 'no results' message instead, as it sounds like your SELECT query didn't match any rows.