php mysql connecting to database, reading but not inserting - php

Question

Hi I am trying to create a little email subscriber script for adding email addresses to my database. I was able to get it working fine using deprecated functions like mysql_connect but am making it better using mysqli instead. However for some reason I am no longer able to insert the email addresses into the database yet I can connect to the database fine and check the email address doesn't already exist. I would like to know why my INSERT doesn't seem to be working. I don't have much experience with PHP thanks.
if (!$link) {
echo "save_failed cannot connect"; //if cant connect show error
return;
}
mysqli_select_db($link,$mydb);
// Clean variables before performing insert
$clean_email = mysqli_real_escape_string($link,$_POST['email']);
$clean_subscriber = mysqli_real_escape_string($link,$_POST['firstname']);
$clean_date = mysqli_real_escape_string($link,$_POST['date']);
$query = "SELECT * FROM EmailList WHERE email = '{$email}'";//check if already in list
$result = mysqli_query($link,$query);
$row_cnt = mysqli_num_rows($result);
if($row_cnt == 0) {
// Perform insert if not in list
$sql = "INSERT INTO EmailList (Email,Name,Date) VALUES
('$clean_email','$clean_subscriber','$clean_date')";
echo "Thank you for Subscribing to my blog!";
} else {
echo "You have subscribed already. Thank you for subscribing";
}

Answer 1

Looks like you're missing the line that runs the query:
mysqli_query($link,$sql);

Answer 2

You need to execute the query with
mysqli_query()
like so:
if (!$link) {
echo "save_failed cannot connect"; //if cant connect show error
return;
}
mysqli_select_db($link,$mydb);
// Clean variables before performing insert
$clean_email = mysqli_real_escape_string($link,$_POST['email']);
$clean_subscriber = mysqli_real_escape_string($link,$_POST['firstname']);
$clean_date = mysqli_real_escape_string($link,$_POST['date']);
$query = "SELECT * FROM EmailList WHERE email = '{$email}'";//check if already in list
$result = mysqli_query($link,$query);
$row_cnt = mysqli_num_rows($result);
if($row_cnt == 0) {
// Perform insert if not in list
$sql = "INSERT INTO EmailList (Email,Name,Date) VALUES
('$clean_email','$clean_subscriber','$clean_date')";
mysqli_query($link,$sql)
echo "Thank you for Subscribing to my blog!";
} else {
echo "You have subscribed already. Thank you for subscribing";
}