column name plus one for loop - php

Question

I have name1, name2, name3 in mysql how do a do a 'for loop' to retreive the names of each person in mysql which i need to do for my form validation.
<?php
$row2 = "SELECT * FROM user WHERE username = '" . mysql_real_escape_string($_SESSION['username']) . "'";
$result = mysql_query($row2) or die("Error in SQL: " . mysql_error());
$row3 = mysql_fetch_array($result);
?>
In the form, I'm using the following, but it is not retrieving the names:
for($i=1; $i<=5; $i++)
// form code
<?php echo $row3['name'+[$i]]?>');

Answer 1

mysql_fetch_array() returns both numeric and associative keys by default, so your incremental for loop won't give you what you want. Instead, use the MYSQL_ASSOC option or mysql_fetch_assoc()
$row3 = mysql_fetch_assoc($result);
// OR
$row3 = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC);
The for loop has to be done in PHP. It is difficult to tell if your loop is client side or server side.
<?php
for ($i=1; $i<=5; $i++) {
// not 'name' + $i -- PHP uses '.' for concatenation
// but it is easier to interpolate it in double quotes.
echo $row3["name$i"];
}
?>
Update
Since you were trying to mix PHP into a JS loop (which won't work), I recommend instead creating a JavaScript array using PHP, which can then be used in the JS loop later.
<?php
// Open a JS array called namesArray
echo "var namesArray = [";
$names = array();
for ($i=0; $i<=5; $i++) {
// get all the column values into an array
$names[] = '"' . $row3["name$i"] . '"';
}
// Make it into a string
$names = implode(',', $names);
// Close the JS array
echo $names . "];"
?>
That should output something like:
var namesArray = ["val1","val2","val3","val4","val5"];
In your JavaScript loop (which you don't have to change), access the values like:
// Updated to use i-1 instead of i
alert('Please make your colour & shade selection for ' + namesArray[i-1]);

Answer 2

The for loop needs to be inside the php tag.