Echo issue with while / if / else - php

Question

I am a beginner learning PHP and MySQL and have gotten to chapter 5 of Head First PHP & MySQL and am attempting a self made project in which I created a database and a index.php page where I can see the results printed out. When I go to my index.php page I see the HTML title but the PHP code is not printing out my submissions. I have to assume my code syntax is correct or I would end up with a blank page. Can someone please tell me what I have coded wrong to wind up with no output?
<?php
$dbc = mysqli_connect(localhost, root, root, itmyfamily);
$query = "SELECT * FROM itsmyfamily ORDER BY last_name ASC, first_name DESC, date ASC";
$data = mysqli_query($dbc, $query);
$i = 0;
while ($row = mysqli_fetch_array($data))
{
if ($i == 0)
{
echo '<strong>First Name:</strong> ' . $row['first_name'] . ' <br />';
echo '<strong>Last Name:</strong> ' . $row['last_name'] . ' <br />';
echo '<strong>Spouse Name:</strong> ' . $row['spouse_name'] . ' <br />';
echo '<strong>Email:</strong> ' . $row['email'] . ' <br />';
}
else
{
echo 'There is no info in the database';
}
$i++;
}
mysqli_close($dbc);

Answer 1

Set this on top of the source code to display errors.
<?php error_reporting( E_ALL ); ?>
Or set display_erros in php.ini as follows:
display_errors = On
error_reporting = E_ALL | E_STRICT
Also try to replace your source code with following,
<?php
//Establish connection with database
$dbc = mysqli_connect(localhost,root,root,itmyfamily);
//Order the data to be retrieved
$query = "SELECT * FROM itsmyfamily ORDER BY last_name ASC, first_name DESC, date ASC";
//Execute the connect command and the query
$data = mysqli_query($dbc,$query);
while ($row = mysqli_fetch_array($data)) {
//Loop through the array of family submissions, formatting it as html
$i = 0;
//Display family submissions
if ($i == 0) {
echo '<strong>First Name:</strong> ' .$row['first_name']. ' <br />';
echo '<strong>Last Name:</strong> ' .$row['last_name']. ' <br />';
echo '<strong>Spouse Name:</strong> ' .$row['spouse_name']. ' <br />';
echo '<strong>Email:</strong> ' .$row['email']. ' <br />';
}
else{
echo 'There is no info in the database';
}
$i++;
}
mysqli_close($dbc);
?>
If you can write it this way, I think you don't even need the $i.
$result = mysql_query("SELECT id, first_name FROM mytable");
if($result){
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC)) {
printf("ID: %s Name: %s", $row["id"], $row["first_name"]);
}
}
else
echo 'There is no info in the database';
Read here for more information about PHP mysql_fetch_array http://www.php.net/mysql_fetch_array
Read here for more information about iterations. http://webcheatsheet.com/php/loops.php
Please note that the method you have used is deprecated from PHP 5.5.0. So I suggest you consider mysqli or PDO. Examples can be found in below PHP manual links
http://www.php.net/manual/en/mysqli.query.php
http://www.php.net/manual/en/pdo.query.php