echo inside of another echo?

[digitalgod]

Hey guys,

I have an echo that displays form elements, 1 of them is a textarea and I need the value to be something that's fetched from my DB

so this is what I did but it's now working, keeps giving me an error

[code]
<? for ($i=1;$i<=$num_news;$i++) {
  echo '<tr>
    <td width="151"><strong>Article #'.$i.'</strong></td>
    <td width="442"></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Upload Pic:</td>
    <td><input type="file" name="file' . $i . '"></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Content:</td>
    <td><textarea rows=10 cols=40 name="news_content' . $i . '" value="'. echo $row['content'];.'"></textarea></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Type:</td>
    <td><select name="type' . $i . '" id="type">
<option>Choose one</option>
<option value="house">House</option>
<option value="hip hop">Hip Hop</option>
<option value="both">Both</option></br></br></td>
  </tr>';
  }?>
[/code]

I tried it without the second echo and even though the script worked it didn't display anything. I tried using the echo $row['content'] alone and it worked perfectly so I know that's not the problem.

Any ideas how can I display the textarea value?

[Kurt]

Remove the second echo and remove the semi-colon after $row['content'].

[digitalgod]

I already tried that and it didn't work, that's why i tried the 2nd echo ;)

[Kurt]

[quote author=digitalgod link=topic=99923.msg393814#msg393814 date=1152409420]
I already tried that and it didn't work, that's why i tried the 2nd echo ;)
[/quote]
You said you tried removing the second echo, but you never said you removed the semi-colon (;) after $row['content']. Do that, and I guarantee you it will work.

[digitalgod]

I just re-did that and got nothing :P

*edit*

here's the full code

[code]
<?php
$num_news = $_SESSION['num_news'];
$date = $_SESSION['news_date'];
$result=mysql_query("SELECT * FROM news WHERE date='". $date ."'") or die(query_error());
$row=mysql_fetch_array($result);
echo $row['content'];
?>
<div id="article">
<form action="admin.php?a=newnews" enctype="multipart/form-data" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="process" value="yes" />
<input type="hidden" name="process_b" value="yes" />
<input type="hidden" name="size_limit" value="500" />
<table width="500" border="0">
  <? for ($i=1;$i<=$num_news;$i++) {
  echo '<tr>
    <td width="151"><strong>Article #'.$i.'</strong></td>
    <td width="442"></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Upload Pic:</td>
    <td><input type="file" name="file' . $i . '"></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Content:</td>
    <td><textarea rows=10 cols=40 name="news_content' . $i . '" value="'. $row['content'].'"></textarea></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Type:</td>
    <td><select name="type' . $i . '" id="type">
<option>Choose one</option>
<option value="house">House</option>
<option value="hip hop">Hip Hop</option>
<option value="both">Both</option></br></br></td>
  </tr>';
  }?>
 
</table>
<br />
<input type="submit" value="Submit News" />
</form>
</div>
[/code]

[kenrbnsn]

You're problem maybe that you're using the <textarea> tag incorrectly. That tag doesn't have a 'value="' attribute, but the value should go between the <textarea> and the </textarea> tags. Also, are you sure that the value of $num_news is greater than or equal to 1?

You do realize that this code will output the same $row['content'] n times, where n = $num_news?

For the <textarea> tag, try:
[code]
<td><textarea rows=10 cols=40 name="news_content' . $i . '">'. $row['content'].'></textarea></td>
[/code]

Also, you will find that using arrays for the names will make the processing of the information coming back from the form much easier:
[code]<?php
for ($i=1;$i<=$num_news;$i++) {
  echo '<tr>
    <td width="151"><strong>Article #'.$i.'</strong></td>
    <td width="442"></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Upload Pic:</td>
    <td><input type="file" name="file[' . $i . ']"></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Content:</td>
    <td><textarea rows=10 cols=40 name="news_content[' . $i . ']">'. $row['content'].'</textarea></td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Type:</td>
    <td><select name="type[' . $i . ']" id="type">
<option>Choose one</option>
<option value="house">House</option>
<option value="hip hop">Hip Hop</option>
<option value="both">Both</option></br></br></td>
  </tr>';
  }?>[/code]

Ken

[digitalgod]

hey Ken,

that worked perfectly thank you.

If I use arrays in the form how do I process them?

this is what I got in my admin.php

[code]
for ($i = 1;$i <= $num_news;$i++) {                           
$headline = $i;
                            $content = $_POST['news_content' . $i];
                            $type = $_POST['type' . $i];
mysql_query("UPDATE " . $prefix . "news SET content='$content',type='$type' WHERE headline='$headline' AND date='$date'") or die(query_error());
                        }
[/code]

but it doesn't seem to update anything, it doesn't give me an error either. I think it has to do with $num_news. In the form $num_news is greater than 1. but when I echo $num_news right before the loop it doesn't output anything.

this is what defines $num_news
[code]
if ($_POST['date'] != '') {
$_SESSION['news_date'] = $_POST['date'];  //gets it from the first form
$date = $_SESSION['news_date'];
$result = mysql_query("SELECT COUNT(*) AS count FROM " . $prefix . "news WHERE date='$date'");
$_SESSION['num_news'] = mysql_result($result,0,'count');
$num_news = $_SESSION['num_news'];
echo $num_news; //works perfectly here                                                       
}
[/code]

And yes I did notice that it will output $row['content'] n times, I'm really not sure how to get the correct info from the DB. Let's say I have 3 entries that have the same date but different content, I want to be able to display that content in different textboxes

[Daniel0]

Why do you define everything as a session variable first?

[digitalgod]

because most of everything is stored in sessions and if for some reason I decide to rename the session variable,  Iwon't have to rename it everywhere