Why is it not creating the table Simpsons? - php

Question

This is the PHP code that acts as 'action' for another HTML page that has only a form in it.
It doesn't show any errors and after I click submit the message 'Database created' appears, but it's not creating the table 'Simpsons'. Why is this happening?
Please, let me know if I should put more details or comment the code.
<?php
$database = 'basedados';
$username = 'root';
$password = '';
$first = $_POST['first'];
$last = $_POST['last'];
$phone = $_POST['phone'];
$mobile = $_POST['mobile'];
$fax = $_POST['fax'];
$email = $_POST['email'];
$web = $_POST['web'];
$con = mysql_connect(localhost, $username, $password);
if (!$con) {
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
if (mysql_query("CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS $database", $con)) {
echo "Database created";
} else {
echo "Error creating database: " . mysql_error();
}
mysql_select_db($database, $con);
$create_table = "CREATE TABLE Simpsons
(
first varchar(15),
last varchar(15),
phone varchar,
mobile varchar,
fax varchar,
email varchar,
web varchar,
)";
$insert_values = "INSERT INTO Simpsons VALUES ($first','$last','$phone','$mobile','$fax','$email','$web')";
if (table_exists(Simpsons, $database)) {
mysql_select_db($database) or die("Unable to select database");
mysql_query($insert_values, $con);
} else {
mysql_select_db($database) or die("Unable to select database");
mysql_query($create_table, $con);
mysql_query($insert_values, $con);
}
function table_exists($table, $db) {
$tables = mysql_list_tables($db);
while (list ($temp) = mysql_fetch_array($tables)) {
if ($temp == $table) {
return TRUE;
}
}
return FALSE;
}
mysql_close($con);
?>
Update:
Ok. Thank you all. Now my code looks more like this:
<?php
$database = 'basedados';
$username = 'root';
$password = '';
$first = $_POST['first'];
$last = $_POST['last'];
$phone = $_POST['phone'];
$mobile = $_POST['mobile'];
$fax = $_POST['fax'];
$email = $_POST['email'];
$web = $_POST['web'];
$con = mysql_connect(localhost, $username, $password);
if (!$con) {
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
if (mysql_query("CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS $database", $con)) {
echo "Database created";
} else {
echo "Error creating database: " . mysql_error();
}
$create_table = "CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS simpsons
(
first varchar(15),
last varchar(15),
phone varchar(15),
mobile varchar(15),
fax varchar(15),
email varchar(15),
web varchar(15)
)";
$insert_values = "INSERT INTO simpsons VALUES ('$first','$last','$phone','$mobile','$fax','$email','$web')";
mysql_select_db($database, $con) or die("Unable to select database: " . mysql_error());
mysql_query($create_table, $con) or die("Error creating table: " . mysql_error());
mysql_query($insert_values, $con) or die("Error inserting values: " . mysql_error());
mysql_close($con);
?>
I think it looks more clean, although I'm not sure I'm using the mysql_error() function correctly.
Thank you again.

Answer 1

One comma to much, and you need to specify the length of the varchar-fields
CREATE TABLE Simpsons
(
first varchar(15),
last varchar(15),
phone varchar(xx),
mobile varchar(xx),
fax varchar(xx),
email varchar(xx),
web varchar(xx)
)

Answer 2

There is a single quote missing in your table before $first:
INSERT INTO Simpsons VALUES ($first','$last','$phone','$mobile','$fax','$email','$web')
But to be honest, without a good error report it is hard to define which things are mistakes in your code and which are typos in your post.
BTW: Have a look at http://nl2.php.net/manual/en/function.mysql-escape-string.php

Answer 3

Why do you call mysql_select_db($database) when only a few lines before you called mysql_select_db($database, $con)? I would drop it.
Not an answer but a refactoring suggestion I couldn't fit into a comment:
if (table_exists(Simpsons, $database)) {
mysql_select_db($database) or die("Unable to select database");
mysql_query($insert_values, $con);
} else {
mysql_select_db($database) or die("Unable to select database");
mysql_query($create_table, $con);
mysql_query($insert_values, $con);
}
could just become
// connect statement dropped
if (!table_exists(Simpsons, $database)) {
mysql_query($create_table, $con);
}
mysql_query($insert_values, $con);
or even eliminated altogether by modifying your creation query's first line to read CREATE TABLE Simpsons IF NOT EXISTS and replacing the above lines with:
mysql_query($create_table, $con);
mysql_query($insert_values, $con);

Answer 4

maybe for first try to execute this code via cli or phpmyadmin if you don't know how to use mysql_error (see examples on page its really easy)