Question

I’m trying to order my blog posts by user defined category, i.e, the one they click on my blog page.

Here’s my code thus far,

##########################################################
$cat = mysql_real_escape_string($_GET['category']);
##########################################################

$sql = "SELECT * FROM php_blog WHERE category = $cat ORDER BY timestamp";

$result = mysql_query($sql) or print ("Can't select entry from table php_blog.<br />" . $sql . "<br />" . mysql_error());

But that gives me this error,

Can’t select entry from table
php_blog. SELECT * FROM php_blog WHERE
category = Update ORDER BY timestamp
You have an error in your SQL syntax;
check the manual that corresponds to
your MySQL server version for the
right syntax to use near ‘Update ORDER
BY timestamp’ at line 1 Warning:
mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument
is not a valid MySQL result resource
in
/home/funding9/public_html/jbblog/htdocs/category.php
on line 91

Answer 1

$sql = "SELECT * FROM php_blog WHERE category = '" . mysql_real_escape_string($cat) . "' ORDER BY timestamp";

The string needed to be quoted (in your example it was Update, needs to be ‘Update’), and also I ran it through mysql_real_escape_string() to protect you from SQL Injection.