problem geting ELSE to work

Worker Joined: Dec 23, 2005 Posts: 226 Location: UK

This runs ok but if the ELSE statement is called, nothing shows up.
I guess I'm missing something but can't see it.

Code:

$result = $db->sql_query('SELECT keyword,keyword_link,club FROM '.$prefix."_mysearch WHERE keyword = '$search'"); 


while ($row = $db->sql_fetchrow($result)) 


{ 


   $keyword_link = $row['keyword_link']; 





   if (isset($keyword_link) && $keyword_link != '') 


   { 


     echo "<div class=\"headerbox\">Football News - $keyword_link</div><br />";


    } else {


    echo "<div class=\"headerbox\">Football News - $search</div><br />";


   } 


}

Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 1:12 pm

I think you might need another right parenthesis around keyword_link in the isset and then another right one to set off the whole isset test.

Something like:

if ((isset($keyword_link)) && ($keyword_link != ''))

might work. If keywork_link can't ever be null in the table then you might not even need to test for it not being equal to null. Or, with the caveat that I don't know you application, but how about just echoing out the "Football news", search and keyword link for each record. That way you'd know where there is a missing link.

Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 2:01 pm

Unfortunately no change, the second else does print and will work if I break the first.

Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 3:45 pm

I'm not sure I quite follow you.

You need to KNOW what the value of keyword_link is. To eliminate the need to fool with parentheses you could just test:

if (isset($keyword_link))

note that you need two parentheses (or is it parenthes?) just for this ... one for the if condition and one for the isset function. Then echo it out together with the search term. Then maybe you could have an extra if that test for the value of null. You SHOULD be able to combine the two tests like you did or like I suggested but when things get flaky the best way to diagnose what's going on is to break it down into separate tests.

Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 6:47 pm

Try this:

if (isset($keyword_link) AND ($keyword_link != ''))
{
echo "<div class=\"headerbox\">Football News - $keyword_link</div><br />";
} else {
echo "<div class=\"headerbox\">Football News - $search</div><br />";
}
}
It should work, as This is how my tests and if statements are always setup.
I put the entire cond in paranthesis, and seperate every sub-cond with surrounding paranthesus as well.

Using AND is something that just helps me when Im thinking about code. && will work just fine.

Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 7:15 pm

Still no joy, I think I may have the if all wrong.
What i'm asking is:
if keyword = $search
print $keyword_link
else
print $search

Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 8:39 pm

Been a long day, but looking at that SQL, the way you have the quotes doesn't look good to me. Especially at the end it looks like you have $search in single quotes, which means it won't be interpreted.

To test all this you could check numrows and see how many are being returned. You could also just echo out the records in the while loop without doing any tests and see exactly what values, if any are being returned. Then I think, you might need to do something about that SQL.

Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 3:55 am

if I echo both in the while loop I get 1 return on both only if search = keyword (I get keyword_link on the first echo and keyword or $search on the second)
nothing returns if $search does not = keyword.
if I echo $search outside the while loop it returns $search

Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 4:31 am

Got it with both outside the while loop

Code:

$result = $db->sql_query("SELECT keyword,keyword_link FROM ".$prefix."_mysearch WHERE keyword = '$search'"); 


while ($row = $db->sql_fetchrow($result)) 


{ 


   $keyword_link = $row['keyword_link']; } 


if ($keyword_link)


{ 


echo "<div class=\"headerbox\">Football News - $keyword_link</div><br />"; 


} 


else{ 


echo "<div class=\"headerbox\">Football News - $search</div><br />"; 


}

Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 7:58 am

I don't know. It looks to me that with that latest code, if you had say, 10 records you'd run thru them all in the while loop and $keyword_link would be set equal to the last record when the while loop terminates. Then you'd do the if test once and if $keyword link equals 1 (a kind of implicit switch) you echo $keyword_link and if not you'd echo $search. No reason that shouldn't work inside the while loop. I also noticed a subtle little change in your quotes in the SQL. If you want to see all your records you'd have to make the tests run inside the loop.

What are you setting keyword_link to? A "1" or a url or "true" or what?

Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 9:26 am

Search is any search term
keyword is a list of possible search terms
keyword_link is a set of replacement words for keyword
All that will be printed is the replacement words if any or the original search words if not

Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 11:24 am

Is this resolved? I wouldn't think it is but you are the judge. Smile

If not, why not eliminate the SQL from the equation and just run some tests with manual variable assignments so you absolutely know what the variables are going into the logical conditions and can test your logic that way?

Code:

$keyword_link = 'abc';


          $search = 'def';


   if (isset($keyword_link) && $keyword_link != '')


   {


     echo "<div class=\"headerbox\">Football News - $keyword_link</div><br />";


    } else {


    echo "<div class=\"headerbox\">Football News - $search</div><br />";


   }

Then try it with the parentheses changes that Darklord and I suggested which were along the same lines. Then try it with the assignment of $keyword_link commented out so it's not set. Then try it with $keyword_link assigned a '' value. Note what happens in each case and when you have the logic right stick it back in the while loop. Even there echo out the values as you encounter them, something like 'echo $row['keyword_link']' before you assign it to the variable.

Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 1:00 pm

Your if statement is fine in terms of parenthesis and operator precedence. It's probably your surrounding code as fkelly is suggesting.

One caveat on && versus AND. I got bit once because the precedence levels for these are NOT the same. I was using AND inside of an ? : and it did not work as I expected. So I switched back to using && and || instead of AND and OR...I am a C++ guy at heart and PHP's && and || works the same as in C++.
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Posted: Tue Dec 19, 2006 8:35 pm

I'm a bit lost, the else works outside the loop but if I put it in the loop, the loop doesn't see $search

Posted: Wed Dec 20, 2006 8:38 am

I just cannot get $search to be seen inside the IF when in the loop.
If I make a second IF as below it seems to work ok,
Any good?

Code:

echo "<div class=\"headerbox\">Football News - ";


$result = $db->sql_query('SELECT keyword,keyword_link FROM '.$prefix."_mysearch WHERE keyword LIKE '$search'"); 


while ($row = $db->sql_fetchrow($result)) 


{ 


   $keyword_link = $row['keyword_link']; 


   if (isset($keyword_link) && (($keyword_link) != ''))


{ 


echo "$keyword_link";


} 


}


if (isset($keyword_link) == '')


{ 


echo "$search";


} 


echo "</div><br />";

Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 8:53 am

Ok, let us start over with the original code attempt. You need to make sure $search is even valued before the SQL call. What do you get when you run this:

Code:

echo "Search Outside Loop = $search<br />";


$result = $db->sql_query('SELECT keyword,keyword_link,club FROM '.$prefix."_mysearch WHERE keyword = '$search'"); 


while ($row = $db->sql_fetchrow($result)) 


{ 


   echo "Search Inside Loop = $search<br />";


   $keyword_link = $row['keyword_link']; 





   if ($keyword_link != '')


   { 


      echo "<div class=\"headerbox\">Football News - $keyword_link</div><br />"; 


   } else { 


      echo "<div class=\"headerbox\">Football News - $search</div><br />"; 


   } 


}

Make sure you replace your code with what I have above and is the value of $search outside the initial loop what you expect it to be?

Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 9:06 am

With that code I get the expected return from $search in and out of the loop but not after the else.

Correction:
If $search is in keyword I get the above. If $search is not in keyword I only get search outside the loop

Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 9:25 am

That must simply be because your data never has an empty value for keyword_link field for the given criteria so the ELSE is never reached.

Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 8:52 am

Is there a way i can tell it that it's empty if it cant find a match?
or should I try anothert way?

Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2006 9:23 am

do the query in phpMyAdmin and see what that field has in it...

Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2006 10:19 am

If the search word is present phpMyAdmin shows that row. If not it shows; MySQL returned an empty result set (i.e. zero rows). (Query took 0.0018 sec)

Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2006 12:11 pm

Hinksta, we'd really like to help you get this resolved but this thread is kind of hard to follow. Just generally speaking, the echo statement is your best friend debugging this kind of problem. Echo the values of everything out ... what's in $row['search'] and row['keyword_link'] and what's in the values of the variables that you stuff those field contents in. If you have an if ... else construction, this stick in an echo right after the brace after the if and say something like "if that tests x is satisfied and my values are y and z" and then after the brace after the else put in a similar echo if you drop thru to that.

Also, like Montego said, you can use Phpmyadmin and one thing to do is to keep a phpmyadmin window open and browse the table and watch the values while you execute your program in the other window. That way you can more or less trace thru what your program is doing. Sometimes enlightenment comes that way.

Posted: Mon Dec 25, 2006 3:32 pm

Ah okay, I think maybe I see the problem.

You need to test how many rows you got before you enter the while loop. If you got 0 rows, your search failed. Otherwise you can do your found logic. Maybe something like this:

Code:




$result = $db->sql_query('SELECT keyword,keyword_link,club FROM '.$prefix."_mysearch WHERE keyword = '$search'");





if ($db->sql_numrows($result) > 0)


{


   // do your while loop or whatever your "found" logic is supposed to do


}


else


{


   // do your "not found" logic here


}

Posted: Tue Dec 26, 2006 1:47 pm

Thanks guys! Good input.