difficulty using select and mysql_query

[krishna]

Hi, i'm pretty new to php and mysql so bear with me...

I have a table called "contacts" and it has a column called "name". i'm trying to get the "id" of the row that has a "name" that matches my a variable, $name. here's the code:

if( $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM contacts WHERE name=$name", $db) ) {
$myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result);
$nameid = $myrow["id"];
printf("%s<Br>", $nameidID);
}
else {
echo mysql_error();
exit;
}

the error is Unknown column 'Alex' in 'where clause'
Alex is the value of $name

If anyone knows how to fix this i'd appreciate it. thanks.

krishna

[mrose]

I would first start at your query - I think you are passing a string variable into the query not a number so it should look like this >>>>>> WHERE name='$name' notice the quote marks.

In your $nameid = $myrow["id"] array remove the "" and you should be ok.

Cheers,

Mike

[krishna]

thanks a lot! i needed the single quotes around $name.

you can actually leave the double quotes around ["id"] if its the name of a column. works both ways.

[Anon]

sure you can keep the double quotes but it good to get in the habit of single quoting strings and leaving the integers alone.