Php with html: creating master variable - php

Question

I have a page that is querying a database quite a few times using php with that's being repeated; the query blocks are interspersed with html in between as well. An example is
<?php
--code here--
SELECT DISTINCT `Retailer`
FROM `product`
WHERE `Product` = 'iPad 2'
--continue code here--
?>
html content here
<?php
--code here--
SELECT DISTINCT `Brand`
FROM `product`
WHERE `Product` = 'iPad 2'
--continue code here--
?>
This is repeated a few times. This page that the queries sit on will need to duplicated for other pages but the "Product" line have to change (for example, Product = 'iPhone'). Currently, each of the queries is located within separate php code blocks so I have to go to each place where it is referenced to change it. Is it possible to have one location at the top of the document that I can change? If so, how do I do this?

Answer 1

I personally like using the $_GET variable for things like this, using mod_rewrite to generate necessary URLs that don't include the variables. I assume that some of your html changes along with the WHERE line of your query, too. You could try something like this:
Links to product pages
<ul>
<li>iPad 2</li>
<li>iPhone 4S</li>
</ul>
The products/index.php document
<?php
$product = $_GET['product'];
//various code
$retailer_result = mysql_query("SELECT DISTINCT Retailer FROM product WHERE Product = '$product'");
//more code
//define and require the html document
$product_page_dir = "products/pages/";
$product_page_path = $product_page_dir . $product;
require $product_page_path;
//more various code
$brand_result = mysql_query("SELECT DISTINCT Brand FROM product WHERE Product = '$product'");
//the rest of the code
This is the simplest way of doing it using this method. Don't forget to establish the connection MySQL and select the database before any queries. Also keep in mind that you should also probably include error handling. Note: the code above is untested.

Answer 2

You probably mean to write something like a function that you can reuse:
function get_product($column, $name) {
return db("SELECT DISTINCT `$column` FROM `product` WHERE `Product` = ?", $name);
}
Then just set a variable $product_name atop your page, and reuse that for issueing the queries. (If that's what you meant.)
$product_name = "iPad 2";
...
get_product("Retailer", $product_name);
...
get_product("Brand", $product_name);
...
get_product("Price", $product_name);