Showing error message to user

[godflesh]

//function that takes username and avatar 
function take_username_avatar()
{
    try{
    $results = array();
    $query = mysql_query("SELECT  username,avatar FROM data WHERE username!='{$_SESSION['username']}'")or die(mysql_error());
    while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($query))
    {
        $results[] = $row;
    }
        
        return $results;
    }  
    catch (Exception $e){
      die("Error  showing user list");
    }
        
}

//page that shows user list
$username_avatar = take_username_avatar();


foreach ($username_avatar  as $user_avatar ) {
  
        ?>
        <p><a href='index.php?page=profile& username =<?php echo $user_avatar  [' username ']; ?>'>
        <?php echo $kor_avatar[' username '] ?></a></p>
        <a href='index.php?page=profile&username=<?php echo $ user_avatar ['username']; ?>'>
            <img src="avatar/<?php echo $kor_avatar['avatar']; ?>" height='100' width='100' alt='avatar'></a>
        <?php
    }  

I have been  trying to solve this for some time, even too long and I would really appreciate the help of experienced PHP user.

 

 

I have made that user can see the list of the other members on the website but I also want to show error message if something goes wrong.

 

 

 

I did it with try-catch block but I also been wondering if there is an efficient way to do that.

  

 

I would also like to know how to make the error to happen because I need to make a print screen for documentation.

 

[Ch0cu3r]

Are you wanting to display an error message if the query does not return the users avatar? If you so you should code your function like

//function that takes username and avatar
// pass the username to the function
function take_username_avatar($username)
{
    $result = mysql_query("SELECT username, avatar FROM data WHERE username ='$username'")or die(mysql_error());
  
    if($result))
    {
        if(mysql_num_rows($result))
        {
             return mysql_fetch_assoc($query); // return the username and avatar
        }
    }
    
    return false; // any other case return false
}

You'd then check the return value of the function to decided whether to display an error

$username_avatar = take_username_avatar($_SESSION['username']);

// if the take_username_avatar() returned false, display error
if($username_avatar === false)
{
    echo $_SESSION['username'] . ' has no avatar';
}
// diplay the avatar
else
{
?>
    <p><a href='index.php?page=profile& username =<?php echo $username_avatar[' username ']; ?>'>
    <?php echo $username_avatar[' username '] ?></a></p>
    <a href='index.php?page=profile&username=<?php echo $username_avatar['username']; ?>'>
    <img src="avatar/<?php echo $username_avatar['avatar']; ?>" height='100' width='100' alt='avatar'></a>
<?php
}
?>

 

 

 would also like to know how to make the error to happen because I need to make a print screen for documentation.

 

To force the error so you can take a screenshot of it pass non existing user to the function, eg   take_username_avatar('non-existing-user')  and the function will return false. Which will force the error message to be displayed

Edited March 20, 2014 by Ch0cu3r