PHP News Via Modal - php

Question

i'm currently working on a project to improve my PHP/SQL skills.
So basically i want to make it so you click on the news title opens a modal that shows the news content, this is what i currently have and it isn't working.
Also sorry for my english, I'm dutch.
$newssql = $odb -> query("SELECT * FROM `news` ORDER BY `date` DESC LIMIT 4");
while($row = $newssql ->fetch())
{
$id = $row['ID'];
$title = $row['title'];
$content = $row['content'];
$autor = $row['author'];
echo '
<a data-toggle="modal" data-id="'.$id.'" data-target="#modal-3">
<div class="inbox-item">
<p class="inbox-item-author">'.htmlspecialchars($title).'</p>
<p class="inbox-item-text">'.htmlspecialchars($content).'</p>
<p class="inbox-item-date">'.date("m/d/y" ,$row['date']).'</p>
</div>
</a>
';
}
//Modal
<div aria-hidden="true" aria-labelledby="modal-label-3" class="modal fade"
id="modal-3" role="modal" style="display: none;" tabindex="-1">
<div class="modal-dialog modal-lg">
<div class="modal-content">
<div class="modal-header">
<button aria-hidden="true" class="close" data-dismiss=
"modal" type="button">×</button>
<h4 class="modal-title" id="modal-label-3">NEWS</h4>
</div>
<div class="modal-body">
<?php echo htmlspecialchars($content); ?>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
//jQuery
<script>
$('button[data-target="#modal-3"]').click(function(event) {
event.preventDefault();
var j = $(this).attr('data-id');
});
</script>

Answer 1

as far as I can see,
<script>
$('button[data-target="#modal-3"]').click(function(event) {
event.preventDefault();
var j = $(this).attr('data-id');
});
</script>
jquery will detect a click event from a button where as you stated
echo '
<a data-toggle="modal" data-id="'.$id.'" data-target="#modal-3">
<div class="inbox-item">
<p class="inbox-item-author">'.htmlspecialchars($title).'</p>
<p class="inbox-item-text">'.htmlspecialchars($content).'</p>
<p class="inbox-item-date">'.date("m/d/y" ,$row['date']).'</p>
</div>
</a>
';
it's on an <a> tag which is not a button.