Problems with table values in SQL queries - php

Question

OK so I used some php/SQL scripts that I found online for hosting a March Madness pool website. It was a pain to set up and debug the guys code, but I basically got it working. For some reason the author created a "brackets" table and a "scores" table.
The "brackets" table is much larger and contains variables for: id, name, person, email, time, tiebreaker, and all 63 of the persons game selections. id increments for every bracket. name is actually the name given to the bracket by the creator. person is the persons name. And so on.
For some reason, this guy made a separate table for scoring the brackets. The "scores" table has the variables: id, name, score, and scoring_type.
Sorting through the scripts where the data is actually displayed to the website, I have no idea what the creator was thinking, but pretty much all of the data displayed uses the "scores" table.
My Problem: The scores table doesn't have a variable for the persons name. So the rankings and brackets are all displayed and organized by the name that the person gave their bracket. People keep asking me whose bracket is whose. I figured it'd be a quick fix to implement it, but boy was I wrong. I'm new to MySql and don't really completely understand what I'm doing. But I looked some stuff up and I've tried many things and CANNOT get it to work.
What I've tried: I was thinking about combining the tables into one but I didn't want to spend hours on something I set up once a year. Figuring both tables have 2 values that are the same, name and id, I tried doing some queries to match the values and request the variable "person." None of these have worked however.
I modified this in a few different ways:
$query = "SELECT person FROM `brackets' WHERE name='$name'";
$result = mysql_query($query,$db) or die(mysql_error());
echo "mysql_result($result)";
I tried with and without using variables. I also tried:
$query = 'SELECT * FROM `brackets';
$result = mysql_query($query,$db) or die(mysql_error());
$dataArray = array(); // create a variable to hold the information
while (($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC)) !== false){
$dataArray[] = $row; // add the row in to the results (data) array
}
$personsNameToDisplay = personsName($name, $dataArray);
echo "$personsNameToDisplay";
With a function that I also tried several approaches with:
function personsName( $passedBracketName, $dataArray ){
$personsMatchedName;
foreach ($dataArray as $key => $value){
if($value == $passedBracketName ){
$personsMatchedName = $value['person'];
}
}
return $personsMatchedName;
}
The error that I've been getting is:
Table 'mlmadness.brackets' WHERE name='beasters'' doesn't exist
Yet when I go into mySQL, and click on "brackets" then "name" there is definitely a bracket with the name value of "beasters"
Thanks

Answer 1

"SELECT person FROM 'brackets' WHERE name='{$name}'";
that should do the trick. You also had blasters' .. the closing should also be and not a '
Better Way:
$mysqli = new mysqli("localhost", "username", "password", "database_name");
$query = "SELECT person FROM brackets WHERE name='{$name}'";
$result = $mysqli->query($query);
while($row = $result->fetch_array())
{
var_dump($row);
}