need some assistance on a forum code mysql php - php

Question

im having problems with this code
<?php
include '01.php';
include 'header.php';
$sql = "SELECT cat_id, cat_name, cat_description FROM categories WHERE cat_id = " . mysql_real_escape_string($_GET['id']) . "";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
if(!$result)
{
echo 'The category could not be displayed, please try again later.' . mysql_error();
}
else
{
if(mysql_num_rows($result) == 0)
{
echo 'This category does not exist.';
}
else
{
//display category data
while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{
echo '<h2>Topics in ′' . $row['cat_name'] . '′ category</h2>';
}
//do a query for the topics
$sql = "SELECT
topic_id,
topic_subject,
topic_date,
topic_cat
FROM
topics
WHERE
topic_cat = " . mysql_real_escape_string($_GET['id']);
$result = mysql_query($sql);
if(!$result)
{
echo 'The topics could not be displayed, please try again later.';
}
else
{
if(mysql_num_rows($result) == 0)
{
echo 'There are no topics in this category yet.';
}
else
{
//prepare the table
echo '<table border="1">
<tr>
<th>Topic</th>
<th>Created at</th>
</tr>';
while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{
echo '<tr>';
echo '<td class="leftpart">';
echo '<h3>' . $row['topic_subject'] . '<h3>';
echo '</td>';
echo '<td class="rightpart">';
echo date('d-m-Y', strtotime($row['topic_date']));
echo '</td>';
echo '</tr>';
}
}
}
}
}
include 'footer.php';
?>
the error it gives me is this The category could not be displayed, please try again later.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 '' at line 1 strong text **
$sql = "SELECT cat_id, cat_name, cat_description FROM categories WHERE keeps not working for some reasonstrong text**
would really appreciate the help i dont know what to do anymore googled everywhere and tried different combinations but cant get the id from cat_id please help

Answer 1

seems you don't have proper quote. you should enclose the result of your mysql_real_escape_string($_GET['id']) inside '
like the sample below
"SELECT cat_id, cat_name, cat_description
FROM categories WHERE cat_id = '" . mysql_real_escape_string($_GET['id']) . "'";
if you want try to use a simplified query remember the quotes this way:
$sql= mysql_query("SELECT cat_id, cat_name, cat_description
FROM categories WHERE cat_id = '" .$id . "';");
but for debugging try
var_dump($id);
var_dump($sql);
and check if $id contain a proper value and $sql is correctly formed (try copy the resulting query and execute it in your console)
then if the query give you the right result in console this mean the resulting query is right..
PS the url should be
xxxxx.com/category.php?id=1
remember to assign a value to your id