Question

I’m building a website to learn PHP and have just built a membership app.

Here’s my code to get the user cookies that I set when the user logs in, then take the business id they are associated with, called biz and look up all the details for the business with the id equal to biz, in the table named company: (btw, I know I’m using mysql but when I finalize my app, I’ll switch to PDO or mysqli)

<?
$auth = $_COOKIE["auth"];
if ($auth != "1"){
    header("Location: ./signin.php");
}
//Grab all the cookies

$firstname = $_COOKIE['firstname'];
$id = $_COOKIE['id'];
$fname = ucwords($_COOKIE['firstname']);
$lname = ucwords($_COOKIE['lastname']);
$email = $_COOKIE['email'];
$city = ucwords($_COOKIE['city']);
$biz = $_COOKIE['biz'];

if(!empty($biz)){
    $donthaveabizyet = "false";
}
else{
    include("./config.php");
    $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM company WHERE id = '$biz'") or mysql_error();
    while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
    {
           $business_name = $row['name'];
           $business_phone = $row['phone'];
           $business_website = $row['website'];
           $business_phone = $row['phone'];
           $business_cat1 = $row['cat1'];
           $business_cat2 = $row['cat2'];
           $business_cat3 = $row['cat3'];
           $business_subcat1 = $row['subcat1'];
           $business_subcat2 = $row['subcat2'];
           $business_subcat3 = $row['subcat3'];
           $business_email = $row['email'];
           $business_product1 = $row['product1'];
           $business_product2 = $row['product2'];
           $business_product3 = $row['product3'];
           $business_product4 = $row['product4'];
           $business_product5 = $row['product5'];
           $business_product6 = $row['product6'];
           $business_product7 = $row['product7'];
           $business_noaddress = $row['noaddress'];
           $business_address = $row['address'];
           $business_address2 = $row['address2'];
           $business_zipcode = $row['zipcode'];
           $business_city = $row['city'];
    }
    $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM company_secondary WHERE company_id = '$biz'") or mysql_error();
    while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
    {
           $business_description = $row['company_description'];
           $business_since = $row['phone'];
           $business_logo = $row['logo'];
           $business_since = $row['since'];
           $business_smoking = $row['smoking'];
           $business_delivery = $row['delivery'];
           $business_alcohol = $row['alcohol'];
           $business_kids = $row['kids'];
           $business_wheelchair = $row['wheelchair'];
           $business_twitter = $row['twitter'];
           $business_facebook = $row['facebook'];
           $business_youtube = $row['youtube'];
           $business_creditcards = $row['creditcards'];
           $business_outdoor = $row['outdoor'];
           $business_featured = $row['featured'];
     }
}
?>

Now I show a link to claim.php if the user’s business id is equal to 0, or if the user’s business id is set, I show the name of the business.

<?php 
if($donthaveabizyet != "false")
{
     echo "<br/><br/>You haven't claimed a business yet. <a href='claim.php'>Click here to claim one now.</a>";
}
else
{
     echo $business_name;
}
?>

Unfortunately, $business_name isn’t displaying, and the error is Notice: Undefined variable: business_name. Why is business_name not set?

Big thanks for all help!!

Answer 1

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{

is causing your problem. Change it to

while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{

This is because fetch_array creates an array with numeric indexes ($array[1], $array[2], etc.). fetch_assoc makes the indexes the same as the column names ($array[‘this’], $array[‘that’], etc.)