MySQL error on form submission - php

Question

I'm getting a mysql error saying "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..."
Here's the basics of my code:
First I'm populating the select menu options with rows from the categories table. This is working fine:
<select id="dropdown-select" name="Name">
<option value="" id="dropdown-option">Please select a category.</option>
<?php
$query_categories = "SELECT * FROM categories";
$result_categories = mysql_query($query_categories) or die(mysql_error());
while($categories_row = mysql_fetch_array($result_categories)) {
echo '<option id="dropdown-option" value="' . $categories_row['cat_name'] . '">' . $categories_row['cat_name'] . '</option>';
}
?>
</select>
Later, when I go submit the form to the transactions table (the above table I pulled data from was the categories table, could this be a problem?) is when I get the error. I think its related to the above code bc if I remove this element from my form submission, it writes the rest of the values to the database without any errors.
if(!isset($_POST['Name'])) {
die('You must select an income or expense from the drop down menu.');
} else {
$Name = $_POST['Name'];
}
//create query
$query = "INSERT INTO transaction (month, trans_name, budgeted, actual) VALUES ('$Month', '$Name', $Budgeted', '$Actual')";
$result = mysql_query($query) or die("Error in query: $query. " . mysql_error());
Thanks for any help you can provide.

Answer 1

You are missing a single quote in your insert statement before $Budgeted
INSERT INTO transaction (month, trans_name, budgeted, actual) VALUES ('$Month', '$Name', '$Budgeted', '$Actual')"

Answer 2

If you have some fields which are defined in Database as VARCHAR, CHAR.
Also, if you are inserting a string value in Database from a PHP script, you need to add an enclosing single quote (') around it.
In your case, you are inserting a string without semicolons, so, it showing error in MySQL.
Your statement should be corrected by adding a single quote around $budget as:
$query = "INSERT INTO transaction (month, trans_name, budgeted, actual) VALUES ('$Month',
'$Name', '$Budgeted', '$Actual')";
------^

Answer 3

The error "You have an error in your SQL syntax" is exactly correct!
$query = "INSERT INTO transaction (month, trans_name, budgeted, actual)
VALUES ('$Month', '$Name', $Budgeted', '$Actual')";
Look here, you missed something ----^
There is a ' missing from your statement causing the syntax error. Put the single quote in and you should be good to go!