Query fails: Newbie needing help ASAP

[LDMartin1959]

Working on a WordPress site. I've been again thrown into the deep end of the pool on this. I am trying to add some code to the HEADER.PHP file which will display content under certian conditions. Here's the code in question:
 

$q1=mysql_query("SELECT * FROM 'wp_sean_sponsors' WHERE 'type' LIKE 1 AND 'cat'='.$post->ID.' ");

$row_diamond=mysql_fetch_object($q1);

if ($q1){
          
?>

The problem is that there doesn't seem to be anything coming back from the database. When I do a var_dump of $q1 it comes back as boolen(false), which I am taking to mean it has no value. But I know that a record which matches the criteria exists. I tried replacing '.$post->ID.' with a hard value with no change.

 

I've got no clue where to go next but they're beating me until I come up with a solution.

[Barand]

Don't put column names in quotes - it treats them as string values if you do that

[LDMartin1959]

You'd think when you use the MySQL query function to create the query it'd be smart enough not to do that!! Thanks. That solves that problem.

[Barand]

Consider

CREATE TABLE search_example (category INT PRIMARY KEY,text VARCHAR(20));
INSERT INTO search_example VALUES (1, 'category'),(2, 'description'),(3, 'text');

This next query searches for column category = column text (as expected none found)

mysql> SELECT category FROM search_example WHERE text = category;
Empty set (0.00 sec)

Now we put category string in quotes to tell SQL "this is a string value"

mysql> SELECT category FROM search_example WHERE text = 'category';
+----------+
| category |
+----------+
|        1 |
+----------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

SQL can't know what you intended. It's up to you to be smart enough.