Question

I have a php script that tries to find a particular name in a database where the specified program is $q, a variable passed from an html page. I’m very new to this so I’m having trouble figuring out how to code an if not found, then display type of message. Below is what I currently have:

$sql="SELECT * FROM names WHERE program='".$q."'";
    $result = mysql_query($sql);
    while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
    {
        echo "<div class='header'>Program Name:</div>";
        echo "<div class='data'>";
        echo $row['program'];
        echo "</div>";
    }

And I need it to echo a message saying if nothing was found. I tried looking at NOT IN condition in SQL and http://www.techonthenet.com/sql/exists.php along with other things on the internet but I’m not sure if this is the right thing to use. Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

use th php function

mysql_num_rows($result);

to check results found

So your code should be like:

$sql="SELECT * FROM names WHERE program='".addslashes($q)."'";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
if(mysql_num_rows($result) > 0)
    while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
    {
        echo "<div class='header'>Program Name:</div>";
        echo "<div class='data'>";
        echo $row['program'];
        echo "</div>";
    }
else
    echo "No data found";

please note i added

addslashes($q) 

in query, in order to avoid SQL injection problems.