Why won't this statement work??

Anon

This section of my scripts returns a 2, not what it's supposed to.

$Lastent = mysql_query("SELECT Date FROM table ORDER BY Date DESC LIMIT 1",$db);
print $Lastent;

What's wrong with it.
Am I suppose to use something besides mysql_query?

I am just trying to return one value, and that is the date in the yyyy-mm-dd format.
Just one value...no arrays.

thanx

Anon

It doesn't matter how many or few rows you expect to retrieve, you still have to follow the same sequence:

submit the query as you have done here.
Retrieve the results by calling mysql_fetch_row() or one of its many cousins one or more times to retrieve the actual data from the query.

Anon

The '2' in your question is simple an arbitrary integer being used as a 'handle' to relate the query you've issued to the retrieval function. Looking at it as a numeric value is meaningless.

Anon

So then why won't this work?

$lastent = mysql_query("SELECT Date FROM table ORDER BY Date DESC LIMIT 1",$db);

$cure = mysql_fetch_row($lastent);
print $cure;

how should the script look?

thanx

Anon

Come on, have a go at reading the php manual about the mysql functions.
Just for fun. Try it.

Anon

I've read all the mysql_fetch options and tried them all.

but none of them does what I want it to.

Anon

I know how to return an array of values...

with the mysql_fetch_array($result)

but I just want it to return one single value so I can print out that one single value without using loops, arrays, etc.

Anon

Here's the generic process (if you're just trying to get a single value)

$sql = "SELECT fieldname FROM tablename WHERE condition";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
$value = $row['fieldname'];
print $value;

Anon

Sure, you can do it that way, but I generally find that having the values in an array to be a nuisance. If you agree, then just use

list($scalar_variable) =

in place of

$array_variable =

in getting the results.

list() can of course contain as many elements as you need. The downside of it is that the resulting correlation between the requested column and the variable assigned is position-sensitive, so the reasonability of list() in this context goes down as the query gets longer. And don't even think about saying:

$qry = mysql_query("select * from some_table");
list($a,$b,...) = mysql_fetch_row($qry);

because you have no control over what order the columns show up!