Question

I am running a sql in PHP query that is dieing with the mysql_error() of

Unknown column '' in 'field list'

The query:

SELECT `standard` AS fee FROM `corporation_state_fee`  WHERE `stateid` = '8' LIMIT 1

when I run the query in PHPmyadmin, it return the information without flagging the error

EDIT:
I apologize for not posting enough information; the following is the entire code block where the problem is

    switch($lid){
        case '460':
            $tbl = $corporation_state_fee_tbl;
            break;
        case '535':
            $tbl = $llc_state_fee_tbl;
            break;
        default:
            return 0;
            break;
    }
    var_dump("SELECT `".$processing."` AS fee FROM `".$tbl."` WHERE `stateid` = '".$state."' LIMIT 1");
    $sql = mysql_query("SELECT `".$processing."` AS fee FROM `".$tbl."` WHERE `stateid` = '".$state."' LIMIT 1") or die(mysql_error());
    $row = mysql_fetch_array($sql);
    $fee = $row['fee'];
    include(CONN_DIR."disconnect.php"); 

and the output is :

string(83) “SELECT standard AS fee FROM corporation_state_fee WHERE stateid = ‘8’ LIMIT 1″
Unknown column ” in ‘field list’

Answer 1

Let’s put some more tests and debug output in there…

switch($lid){
  case '460':
    $tbl = $corporation_state_fee_tbl;
    break;
  case '535':
    $tbl = $llc_state_fee_tbl;
    break;
  default:
    return 0;
    break;
}

if ( !isset($processing, $tbl, $state) ) {
  die("something's missing");
}
// hopefully _all_ those variable parts are "safe"?

// use multiple lines so the error location is a bit more expressive
// ... and I find it easier to read this way
$query = "
  SELECT
    `".$processing."` AS fee
  FROM
    `".$tbl."`
  WHERE
    `stateid` = '".$state."'
  LIMIT
    1
";

// please copy&paste the output of the next line
echo '<pre>Debug: query=', htmlspecialchars($query), '</pre>';
$sql = mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error());
$row = mysql_fetch_array($sql);
if ( false===$row ) {
  // no such record
  return 0;
}
$fee = $row['fee'];
include(CONN_DIR."disconnect.php");