deleting the contents of a field?

Anon

mysql_query("UPDATE news SET news = '' WHERE blobname='$blobname'")

that returns a parse error but so does this

mysql_query("UPDATE news SET news = 'It Worked' WHERE blobname='$blobname'")

so it's probably my syntax.

anyone help?

[deleted]

I take it that MySQL is giving the parse error?

Rule #1 in debugging: print!

Print the query instead of executing it, and see exactly what's going on.
My guess is that $blobname is filled with some 'illegal' data.

Anon

$blobname doesn't have 'illegal' data, i know that.

Here is the entire file (with the db password replaced)

<?php
$blobname = $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS["BlobWarsName"];

    $pass = $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS["BlobWarsPass"];

$hostname = "localhost";
$usernamedb = "cheater";
$passworddb = "replaced";
$dbName = "blobs";

MYSQL_CONNECT($hostname, $usernamedb, $passworddb);
@mysql_select_db("$dbName");

$fp = fopen( "links.txt", 'r' );
$linksfile = fread($fp, filesize("links.txt"));
fclose ( $fp );

       $query = mysql_query("SELECT blobname,pass FROM members WHERE blobname='$blobname'");


        while( $userinfo = mysql_fetch_array($query) ) {

                    $usercheck = $userinfo["blobname"];

                    $passcheck = $userinfo["pass"];

                    $exists = 1;

        }





        if ($exists !== 1) {

        include ("error_user.txt");

        } elseif ($pass !== $passcheck) {

                    include ("error_pass.txt");

        } else {

mysql_query("UPDATE news SET news = 'It Worked' WHERE blobname='$blobname'")

print '

</head>
<body bgcolor="#778899">
<div align="center">
<p>
<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="450">
<tr height="22"><td background="images/topbg.jpg"><p class="nav" align="left">'.$linksfile.'</p></td></tr>
<tr><td background="images/mainbg.jpg" class="a" valign="top">
<p align="center"><br />
Success.
</p>

</td></tr>
<tr><td height="20" background="images/mainbg.jpg" class="a" valign="top"></td></tr>
<tr height="22"><td background="images/bottombg.jpg"><p class="a" align="right">Blob Wars :: '.$blobname.'\'s Home</p></td></tr>
</table>
</p>
</div>
</body>

i get the error when running the script... and no it's just a parse error:

Parse error: parse error in /home/cheater/www/blobs/view/newsdelete.php on line 51

Anon

nevermind. fixed it - just forgot a ;

dumbarse = me

smarlowe

Please note that if you want to delete the contents of a field, it's probably better to set it's value to NULL than to an empty string.

i.e.

update table1 set field = NULL where id=$someid;

that way you can look for empty fields by searching on NULL fields i.e. the "deleted" fields will look the same as fields that have never been filled in.