php mysql search continues forever - php

Question

I'm trying to create a basic "search my table columns for all rows that match, and show me the rows" type search. What I ended up with is a query that repeats forever, and the resulting webpage never stops loading. Classic example of a loop that can't end. I don't know why though. I'm trying to keep each little step in it's own function like a good boy, and reusing functions.
A person should be able to search for question or john to return one row, plus or minus looks like two rows, and test will return three rows.
Please help!
function databaseconnection($sql){
$usernm="XXXfooXXX";
$passwd="XXXfooXXX";
$host="XXXfooXXX";
$database="contact_info";
mysql_connect($host,$usernm,$passwd);
mysql_select_db($database);
$result = mysql_query ($sql) or die (mysql_error ());
return $result;
}
function searchtable(){
echo 'searchtable() <br />';
if ($_POST['search'] != "" ){
$search = preg_replace('/[^ \wa-zA-Z0-9_.#()\-+~,?]+/', '', $_POST['search']);
}
if ($search){
$sql = "SELECT * FROM names_numbers WHERE name LIKE \"%{$search}%\"".
" OR phone_address LIKE \"%{$search}%\"".
" OR notes LIKE \"%{$search}%\"";
echo 'attempting sql action<br />';
echo "$sql <br />";
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc(databaseconnection($sql))){
print_r($row);
}
}
}
function draw_search_form(){
echo '<form action="./numbers.php" method="post">'."\n";
echo 'notes:<br>'."\n";
echo '<input type="text" name="search"><br>'."\n";
echo '<input type="submit" value="Submit">'."\n";
echo '</form>'."\n";
}

Answer 1

I believe in your while loop, you are executing the query every time, which resets your result iterator. When you switch to mysqli or PDO you can refactor to run the query once, then iterate over the results.
$results = databaseconnection($sql);
while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($results) {
...
}

Answer 2

With your current while loop, you are opening a new database connection, running the query and getting the first row again and again.
This can be easily fixed by moving your query out of database, and then iterating over the result
Here is the code with changes
function databaseconnection($sql){
$usernm="XXXfooXXX";
$passwd="XXXfooXXX";
$host="XXXfooXXX";
$database="contact_info";
mysql_connect($host,$usernm,$passwd);
mysql_select_db($database);
$result = mysql_query ($sql) or die (mysql_error ());
return $result;
}
function searchtable(){
echo 'searchtable() <br />';
if ($_POST['search'] != "" ){
$search = preg_replace('/[^ \wa-zA-Z0-9_.#()\-+~,?]+/', '', $_POST['search']);
}
if ($search){
$sql = "SELECT * FROM names_numbers WHERE name LIKE \"%{$search}%\"".
" OR phone_address LIKE \"%{$search}%\"".
" OR notes LIKE \"%{$search}%\"";
echo 'attempting sql action<br />';
echo "$sql <br />";
// Run the query once
$result = databaseconnection($sql);
// Now iterate over the results
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)){
print_r($row);
}
}
}
function draw_search_form(){
echo '<form action="./numbers.php" method="post">'."\n";
echo 'notes:<br>'."\n";
echo '<input type="text" name="search"><br>'."\n";
echo '<input type="submit" value="Submit">'."\n";
echo '</form>'."\n";
}

Answer 3

posting as an answer, to make it easier to format the corrected function:
function searchtable(){
echo 'searchtable() <br />';
if ($_POST['search'] != "" ){
$search = preg_replace('/[^ \wa-zA-Z0-9_.#()\-+~,?]+/', '', $_POST['search']);
}
if ($search){
$sql = "SELECT * FROM names_numbers WHERE name LIKE \"%{$search}%\"".
" OR phone_address LIKE \"%{$search}%\"".
" OR notes LIKE \"%{$search}%\"";
echo 'attempting sql action<br />';
echo "$sql <br />";
$results = databaseconnection($sql);
while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($results)) {
print_variable($row);
}
//while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc(databaseconnection($sql))){
// print_variable($row);
//}
}
}

Answer 4

Man, you are providing an array into while which will always remain true. Please use foreach instead.
$row = mysql_fetch_assoc(databaseconnection($sql))
foreach ($row as $r){
print_r ($r)//extract associative elements
}