Array comparisons with MySQL array and a php variable

[danp]

After looking around for about an hour on various sites, I can't seem to find a direct answer, only how to grab the entire array etc...

 

I'm trying to find out how to compare a variable with a member of an array.

 

Doing something similar to

$idcheckx = mysql_query("SELECT id FROM inventory WHERE owner = '$user_name'");

$idchecky = mysql_fetch_assoc($idcheckx);

 

would create an array with all the id's pertaining to the user...

 

How would I check if a variable, let's say $this_id = "3";  exists in the $idchecky array?

 

Thank you in advance,

-D

[danp]

it seems I should use the "is_array" function, but the posts on php.net show how to do some tricky stuff with it... can anyone help me in plain English? 

[mattal999]

$idcheckx = mysql_query("SELECT id FROM inventory WHERE owner = '$user_name'");
$idchecky = mysql_fetch_assoc($idcheckx);
$thisid = 3;
foreach($idchecky as $name => $id) {
    if(in_array($thisid, $id)) {
        echo "Found a match where id is ".$id;
    }
}

[PFMaBiSmAd]

1) A call to mysql_fetch_assoc() fetches ONE row from the result set.

2) Since your query is only selecting id, $idchecky will be an array with one element $idchecky['id'] that will contain whatever your id column consists of for the specific owner = that matched the WHERE clause.

 

What exactly does the data in your table look like (post at least two rows that should match a specific owner.)

 

One of the great points of using a database is you only retrieve the information you are interested in. If you find yourself looping through the result of a query searing for a value, you are not using the database effectively. If you only want the row(s) that have a specific value, such as id = $this_id, then you would include that comparison in the WHERE clause in the query.

[danp]

Thanks Matt & PFM!