Assign MySQL database value to PHP variable - php

I have a MySQL Database Table containing products and prices.
Though an html form I got the product name in a certain php file.
For the operation in this file I want to do I also need the corresponding price.
To me, the following looks clear enough to do it:
$price = mysql_query("SELECT price FROM products WHERE product = '$product'");
However, its echo returns:
Resource id #5
instead a value like like:
59.95
There seem to be other options like
mysqli_fetch_assoc
mysqli_fetch_array
But I can't get them to output anything meaningful and I don't know which one to use.
Thanks in advance.

You will need to fetch data from your database
$price = mysql_query("SELECT price FROM products WHERE product = '$product'");
$result = mysql_fetch_array($price);
Now you can print it with
echo $result['price'];
As side note I would advise you to switch to either PDO or mysqli since mysql_* api are deprecated and soon will be no longer mantained

If you read the manual at PHP.net (link), it will show you exactly what to do.
In short, you perform the query using mysql_query (as you did), which returns a Result-Resource. To actually get the results, you need to perform either mysql_fetch_array, mysql_fetch_assoc or mysql_fetch_object on the result resource. Like so:
$res = mysql_query("SELECT something FROM somewhere"); // perform the query on the server
$result = mysql_fetch_array($res); // retrieve the result from the server and put it into the variable $result
echo $result['something']; // will print out the result you retrieved
Please be aware though that you should not use the mysql extension anymore; it has been officially deprecated. Instead you should use either PDO or MySQLi.
So a better way to perform the same process, but using for example the MySQLi extension would be:
$db = new mysqli($host, $username, $password, $database_name); // connect to the DB
$query = $db->prepare("SELECT price FROM items WHERE itemId=?"); // prepate a query
$query->bind_param('i', $productId); // binding parameters via a safer way than via direct insertion into the query. 'i' tells mysql that it should expect an integer.
$query->execute(); // actually perform the query
$result = $query->get_result(); // retrieve the result so it can be used inside PHP
$r = $result->fetch_array(MYSQLI_ASSOC); // bind the data from the first result row to $r
echo $r['price']; // will return the price
The reason this is better is because it uses Prepared Statements. This is a safer way because it makes SQL injection attacks impossible. Imagine someone being a malicious user and providing $itemId = "0; DROP TABLE items;". Using your original approach, this would cause your entire table to be deleted! Using the prepared queries in MySQLi, it will return an error stating that $itemId is not an integer and as such will not destroy your script.

Related

PDO Query Not Showing Data

I want to migrate a site from some poorly written MySQLi to clean PDO.
I have looked at three similar questions and their answers, and this is a straightforward question, but none of them are giving me results. Here's my code:
$state = "Alaska";
//trying to implement PDO here
$sql = "SELECT * FROM sales WHERE state = ? ORDER BY type";
$result = $conn->prepare($sql);
$result->execute(array($state));
/*
this was the old, successfully working way before
$sql = "SELECT * FROM sales WHERE state = '$state' ORDER BY type";
$result = $conn->query($sql);
*/
Previous questions on this site show me answers that look like my PDO implementation, yet mine doesn't work. I have made sure the PDO class exists and that the extension is loaded.
If you see the error, let me know!
The difference between the two, aside from difference in libraries, is that one is using a direct query() (the mysqli_*), while the other is using a prepared statement. Those are handled a bit different, regardless which API is running.
When using MySQLi, doing
$result = $conn->query($sql);
would have $result be a mysqli-result object, which holds the data. You can use mysqli_result::fetch_assoc() on that to fetch the data. However, when you're using PDO::prepare(), your $result variable will be a PDOStatement - which is a bit different. You'll need to run a fetch() method on it first, and then you can use the return-value of it, as such
$state = "Alaska";
$sql = "SELECT * FROM sales WHERE state = ? ORDER BY type";
$stmt = $conn->prepare($sql);
$stmt->execute(array($state));
$result = $stmt->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
Note that I've changed the names of your variables. Now $result is an array (if there are any results fetched), which you can use as you normally do when fetching associative-arrays. If there are no results, PDOStatement::fetch() will return a boolean false.
var_dump($result['state']);
You can loop the fetch() method as
while ($result = $stmt->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC)) {
if you expect more than one row. Use $result as you would without looping, as shown above.
Note that this assumes a valid PDO-connection. Beware that you cannot interchange any MySQL libraries, mysql_, mysqli_* and PDO are all different animals in the zoo.
PHP.net on PDOStatement::fetch()
Can I mix MySQL APIs in PHP?

Get values from query and return as array

How could I return the values from this query as an array so that I can perform an action with the array?
$sql = mysql_query("SELECT username FROM `users`");
$row = mysql_fetch_array($sql);
How would I get the code to be like the following? Here, the user1 and user2 would be the usernames of the users selected from the above query.
$userarray = array("user1","user2");
Before I point out best practices, you need working code first. So I'll give you a simple solution first.
To run a query with the mysql extension the function is mysql_query, you can't pass the query text directly to mysql_fetch_array. Nextly mysql_fetch_array doesn't do what you think it does. mysql_fetch_array combines the functionality of mysql_fetch_row and mysql_fetch_assoc together by storing the key names of the resulting columns along with their numeric indexes. The mysql_fetch_array function does not return an array with all rows from your query. To get all rows from the query, you need to run mysql_fetch_array in a loop like so:
$sql = "SELECT username FROM `users`";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
if(!$result){echo mysql_error();exit;}
$rows=array();
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
$rows[]=$row;
}
print_r($rows);
Nextly, do note that the mysql_* functions are deprecated because the mysql extension in PHP is no longer maintained. This doesn't mean MySQL databases are deprecated, it just means the database adapter called mysql in PHP is old and newer adapters are available that you should be using instead, such as mysqli and PDO.
Next point, it is bad practice to rely upon short tags as it can be disabled by php.ini settings, always use either <?php ... ?> or <?= ... ?> for easy echoing which isn't affected by short tags.
Please read up on some mysqli or PDO simple examples to get started with one or the other. The mysqli extension is specific for MySQL while PDO (PHP Data Objects) is designed as a generic adapter for working with several kinds of databases in a unified way. Make your pick and switch so you're no longer using the deprecated mysql_* functions.
You would need to use a foreach loop to do it:
$userarray = [];
foreach($row as $single)
{
array_push($userarray, $single['username']);
}
and if can, try to use this MySQLi Class, it's very simple to get what you want from the database.
$db = new MysqliDb ('host', 'username', 'password', 'databaseName');
$userarray = $db->getValue('users', 'username', null);

Getting a basic PDO statement to execute

I am attempting to get the following PDO statement to work and running into issues. When I am trying to get the number of rows, I keep getting 0, yet I know there should be 1 row. When I ran it as a mysqli statement( before trying to change it to PDO) it worked perfectly.
Here is the code:
require_once ('pdo.php');
$isbn = $_POST['isbn'];
// check to see if the isbn is a "problem" isbn or not
$problem = $conn->prepare("select isbn, note from problem where isbn = :isbn");
$problem->bindParam(":isbn", $isbn);
$problem->execute();
print_r($problem);
$num_rows = $problem->rowCount();
print_r($num_rows); die;
EDIT: Here is pdo.php:
<?php
function db_connect()
{
$db = new PDO("mysql:host=localhost; db=bookcell_BCOS_final", "xxxxx", "xxxxx");
return($db);
}
?>
I know that my connection works, but I get 0 for $num_rows. What mistakes am I making here?
Besides a little quirk and a optimalisation your code looks fine to me. The posted value isbn could be the reasong that you are getting no data:
$problem = $conn->prepare("select isbn, note from problem where isbn = :isbn");
$problem->bindParam(":isbn", $_POST['isbn'], PDO::PARAM_STR); // <-- thats what parameter binding is for
$problem->execute();
print_r($problem);
$num_rows = $problem->rowCount(); // <-- gives the number of rows, not columnCOunt
print_r($num_rows); die;
The Syntax for $num_rows = $problem->columnCount(); is totally correct. You may try,
$problem->execute(array("isbn" => $isbn));
instead of bindParam.
for getting the no. of rows, you need to use pdo::rowCount() -- manual here
In PDO to verfiy if your execute statement did work, check the return value (bool):
$success = $problem->execute();
if (!$success) {
$arr = $problem->errorInfo();
print_r($arr);
}
Also you might be looking for rowCount() instead of columnCount() but I think the error handling is your furthermost issue.
Additionally you can make PDO throw an exception each time an error appears, compare:
Switching from PHP's mysql extension to PDO. Extend class to reduce lines of code
How do I raise PDOException?
Depending on the database driver and the mode it's running, PDO may not be able to give you a row count. Look carefully at the documentation for PDOStatement::rowCount():
If the last SQL statement executed by the associated PDOStatement was a SELECT statement, some databases may return the number of rows returned by that statement. However, this behaviour is not guaranteed for all databases and should not be relied on for portable applications.
This is because in many cases the database uses a cursor rather than fetching the full results and buffering them (which is how the old mysql_* functions behave). In this case the database doesn't know how many rows there are until you have looked at all the rows. Think of a cursor as something like a filesystem pointer--you can't know the filesize until you seek to the end of the file.

What is the best way to get MySQL query results as an array in PHP?

I'm new to PHP. I have a select statement that returns 100 values for a particular record. I'd like to store these 100 values in an array. Is this the right command to store values that I get from a select statement into an array?
$result = mysql_query("select * from processed1 where record = ('$id') ");
$data = array();
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
$data[] = $row; //IS THIS CORRECT?
}
Is there a way where I can avoid typing in the 100 attributes for my table? example : $row[1] ... $row[100]
If you are going to learn PHP in 2011, let's do it right.
First off, mysql_query or mysql_ anything code is deprecated. Don't use it anymore.
Don't worry - what I am suggesting works great with mysql databases, but it will also work great with any database:
PDO is what the PHP community continues to add features to, so I would use that.
PDO is also way more powerful, and makes it easier to switch databases later.
MYSQLi (the i stands for improved) replaces deprecated mysql_ based queries, but I would definitely go straight to using PDO.
You could also easily create an array
of objects later with one line change!
Secondly, Phil mentioned fetchAll(). This is the end goal. The other ways simply move thru it one row at a time. This uses a bulldozer instead of a shovel. Note: not the best way of selecting really large amounts of data, as it will use up memory. Otherwise, it is fine.
To get there, use prepared procedures to protect your code from SQL injection attacks.
<?php
/* Execute a prepared statement by binding PHP variables */
$calories = 150;
$colour = 'red';
$sth = $dbh->prepare('SELECT name, colour, calories
FROM fruit
WHERE calories < :calories AND colour = :colour');
$sth->bindParam(':calories', $calories, PDO::PARAM_INT);
$sth->bindParam(':colour', $colour, PDO::PARAM_STR, 12);
$sth->execute();
/* Fetch all of the rows into an array */
print("Fetch all of the remaining rows in the result set:\n");
$result = $sth->fetchAll();
print_r($result);
?>
Your code looks fine to me. But I would suggest to use mysql_fetch_assoc() instead of mysql_fetch_array(), so that keys are mapped to their values. Also, use mysql_real_escape_string() to prevent SQL injection.
$query = "Select * from processed1 where record = '".mysql_real_escape_string($id)."'";
$result = mysql_query($query);
$data = array();
while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{
$data[] = $row;
}
If you're trying to store all the database rows into an array, yes, that code should do it. A few comments, though:
As curiou57 suggested, use mysql_fetch_assoc() to be able to refer to columns in an individual row by their names. (ex: foreach ($data as $row) { echo $row['columnname']; })
Make sure you run $id through mysql_real_escape_string() if you have to continue using the mysql extension. This prevents SQL injection attacks.
If you don't have to continue using the mysql extension, consider using PDO or mysqli.
Switch to mysql_fetch_row() if you want to reference each column by a numeric index (note, zero-based). Otherwise, that looks correct.
If you decide to switch to PDO, you can use the handy PDOStatement::fetchAll() method, using the PDO::FETCH_NUM fetch style to fetch all rows as numeric arrays into an array.
This is the correct way:
while($rows[] = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result));
array_pop($rows); // pop the last row off, which is an empty row

How do you connect/retrieve data from a MYSQL database using objects in PHP?

Generally I connect and retrieve data using the standard way (error checking removed for simplicity):
$db = mysql_select_db("dbname", mysql_connect("host","username","passord"));
$items = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM $db");
while($item = mysql_fetch_array($items)) {
my_function($item[rowname]);
}
Where my_function does some useful things witht that particular row.
What is the equivalent code using objects?
Since version 5.1, PHP is shipped with the PDO driver, which gives a class for prepared statements.
$dbh = new PDO("mysql:host=$hostname;dbname=$db", $username, $password); //connect to the database
//each :keyword represents a parameter or value to be bound later
$query= $dbh->prepare('SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = :id AND password = :pass');
# Variables are set here.
$query->bindParam(':id', $id); // this is a pass by reference
$query->bindValue(':pass', $pass); // this is a pass by value
$query->execute(); // query is run
// to get all the data at once
$res = $query->fetchall();
print_r($res);
see PDO driver at php.net
Note that this way (with prepared statements) will automatically escape all that needs to be and is one of the safest ways to execute mysql queries, as long as you use binbParam or bindValue.
There is also the mysqli extension to do a similar task, but I personally find PDO to be cleaner.
What going this whole way around and using all these steps gives you is possibly a better solution than anything else when it comes to PHP.
You can then use $query->fetchobject to retrieve your data as an object.
You can use the mysql_fetch_object()
http://is2.php.net/manual/en/function.mysql-fetch-object.php

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