Making the results from a Loop, hypertext urls - php

Question

I am echoing a list of areas covered from a database. The list has Headings and sub headings taken from the database,
$area_shire = '';
$area_district = '';
$area_name = '';
while($rows = mysql_fetch_array($query)):
if($rows['area_shire'] != $area_shire) {
echo '<h1>'.$rows['area_shire'].'</h1>';
$area_shire = $rows['area_shire'];
}
/* same for district using h2 and name using h3 */
endwhile;
I now want to make each result a hypertext url so i have added
$area_shire_url = str_replace(' ', '_', $area_shire);
$area_district_url = str_replace(' ', '_', $area_district);
$area_name_url = str_replace(' ', '_', $area_name);
and changed each echo to
echo '<a href=\"Tree_Surgery_'.$area_shire_url.'.php\"><h2>'.$rows['area_shire'].'<br></h2>';
$area_shire = $rows['area_shire'];}
/* same for district using h2 and name using h3 */
This has not worked at all?

Answer 1

I would rewrite the snipped as:
$area_shire = '';
$area_district = '';
$area_name = '';
while($rows = mysql_fetch_assoc($query)) {
if ($rows['area_shire'] != $area_shire) {
$area_shire = $rows['area_shire'];
$area_shire_url = 'Tree_Surgery_'.str_replace(' ', '_', $area_shire).'.php';
echo '<h2>'.$area_shire.'</h2><br>';
}
// same for district using h2 and name using h3
}
Your error seems to have been that you escaped the " while in a single-quoted string. When using ', php will echo all contained characters as-is; no escaping needed.
Note that I've also used mysql_fetch_assoc instead of mysql_fetch_array and rearranged the order of you HTML-tags to avoid nesting block-level elements inside inline elements.
I also choose to store the complete url in a variable, instead of just a part of it and combining it in the echo statement into the full url. This is, in my opinion, easier to read. Especially when you want to edit things later on.

Answer 2

'<a href=\"Tr
I don't think you need to escape the " since you're not using " to define your php statement.

Answer 3

You do not need to escape the double quotes as the text is not within double quotes. You also seem to have a } at the end of your code, unless this is not all of the code, this is not necessary.
I have not see this format or while loop, try changing it to this:
while($rows = mysql_fetch_array($query)){
// do stuff
}
More importantly, you have not ended your a tag. End your line with </a>