Question

basically what I am trying to do is run a sql statement that inserts select parts of the query results into a table that was recently created. I tested it with mysql and ran this line

INSERT INTO searched(imagetargetpath, gamename, gamedirectory, `like`, dislike) 
SELECT imagetargetpath, gamename, gamedirectory, `like`, dislike
FROM boardgamelist
WHERE gamename LIKE '%david%'

that successfully ran
but when I put the same line into the php from what I was given from phpmyadmin the mysql_query doesn’t seem to run

$sql = "INSERT INTO searched(imagetargetpath, gamename, gamedirectory,
`like`,   dislike) \n"
. "SELECT imagetargetpath, gamename, gamedirectory, `like`, dislike\n"
. "FROM boardgamelist\n"
. "WHERE gamename LIKE \'%david%\'";
    //copies query
    $copy_query = mysql_query($sql);

previously in my code however i do have a mysql command (confirmed to work) that creates the table “searched”
what am I forgetting to do with the mysql command that doesn’t allow it to run?

Answer 1

You’ve forgotten spaces at your line breaks:

. "SELECT imagetargetpath, gamename, gamedirectory, `like`, dislike\n"
                                                                   ^---here
. "FROM boardgamelist\n"
                     ^---here

That’d make the final query string be:

... dislikeFROM boargamelistWHERE

If you had even bare bones error handling, e.g.

$copy_query = mysql_query($sql) or die(msyql_error());
                               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

you’d have been informed of the syntax errors.