Never seen this error before -help

[Lassie]

I have apiece of code to retireve ads placed by a selected user from a db.

The code use a function to retieve the info and then goes through the result to dispaly the records in a table.

I am getting an error I have not sen before. Can anyone tell me what it means.

 

The error is

....uninitialized string offset:0

This occurs in both cols.

The code is

//set short variables
				$u=$_SESSION['user_id'];

				$ads=get_ads($u);


				if (is_array($ads)) 
		{
			echo "<h2>You have the following advertisements pending activation</h2><br/>";
			echo '<table id="t4" align="center">';
			 echo '<caption align="center"><b>Advertisement Summary<b></caption>';
  			
  				echo '<tr><th>Ad Ref</th><th>Date Placed</th></tr>';
        
        		foreach ($ads as $row)
        		{
				echo '<tr><td>';
     
 			echo ($row['ad_ref']);

 			echo '</td>';

 			echo '<td>';
     
 			echo ($row['date_placed']);

			 echo '</td></tr>';

			}
			 echo '</table>' ;

			include ('./includes/footer.html'); 
			  
			  
		}
		else{
			echo "You have no advertisements awaiting activation";
			include ('./includes/footer.html');
			exit();
		}

The function is
[code]
function get_ads($u)
{
				//connect to db
				$connection = db_connect();  

       				
       			//retrieve all ads placed by user but not activated.
       			
			$query="SELECT * FROM ads WHERE user_id='$u'";

			$result= mysql_query($query)or die(mysql_error());
			if (!$result)
     				return false;
  					$result = mysql_fetch_assoc($result);
   					return $result;
}	       	       

 

[/code]

[GingerRobot]

It would be nice if you could tell us where the error occurs? Which line does the error message tell you it happens on? And do you think you could point that line out to us? It'd make it a whole stack easier to help you...

 

Edit: Hmm, i guess i wasn't paying all that much attention - you did sort of say where it happens. I think, you need to change the way your function works slightly. You'll need to pass the result resource back to the script, and then use mysql_fetch_assoc() function in the main script:

 

<?php
function get_ads($u)
{
				//connect to db
				$connection = db_connect();  

       				
       			//retrieve all ads placed by user but not activated.
       			
			$query="SELECT * FROM ads WHERE user_id='$u'";

			$result= mysql_query($query)or die(mysql_error());
			$num = mysql_num_rows($result);
                if($num == 0){
                    return false
                }else{
                    return $result
                }
}
?>

				$u=$_SESSION['user_id'];

				$ads=get_ads($u);


				if ($ads)
		{
			echo "<h2>You have the following advertisements pending activation</h2><br/>";
			echo '<table id="t4" align="center">';
			echo '<caption align="center"><b>Advertisement Summary<b></caption>';
  			
  				echo '<tr><th>Ad Ref</th><th>Date Placed</th></tr>';
        
        		while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($ads))
        		{
				echo '<tr><td>';
     
			echo ($row['ad_ref']);

			echo '</td>';

			echo '<td>';
     
			echo ($row['date_placed']);

			echo '</td></tr>';

			}
			echo '</table>' ;

			include ('./includes/footer.html'); 
			  
			  
		}
		else{
			echo "You have no advertisements awaiting activation";
			include ('./includes/footer.html');
			exit();
		}		

[Lassie]

Yes sorry.

The error occurs on line 49 and 55 marked below:

 

$u=$_SESSION['user_id'];

				$ads=get_ads($u);


				if (is_array($ads)) 
		{
			echo "<h2>You have the following advertisements pending activation</h2><br/>";
			echo '<table id="t4" align="center">';
			 echo '<caption align="center"><b>Advertisement Summary<b></caption>';
  			
  				echo '<tr><th>Ad Ref</th><th>Date Placed</th></tr>';
        
        		foreach ($ads as $row)
        		{
				echo '<tr><td>';
     
 			echo ($row['ad_ref']);//line 49 error

 			echo '</td>';

 			echo '<td>';
     
 			echo ($row['date_placed']);//line 55 error

			 echo '</td></tr>';

			}
			 echo '</table>' ;

			include ('./includes/footer.html'); 
			  
			  
		}
		else{
			echo "You have no advertisements awaiting activation";
			include ('./includes/footer.html');
			exit();
		}

 

[GingerRobot]

Thought that might happen when i edited, probably should have added a new reply rather than editing. Ah well. Take a look at the code i suggested.

[Lassie]

thanks for that, however now get a parse error in the function at the else condition. I cant see why?

function get_ads($u)
{
				//connect to db
				$connection = db_connect();  

        			//retrieve all ads placed by user but not activated.
       			
			$query="SELECT * FROM ads WHERE user_id='$u'";

			$result= mysql_query($query)or die(mysql_error());
			$num = mysql_num_rows($result);
                if($num == 0)
			{
                    return false
                }else{       //parse error
                    return $result
                }
}	       	     

[GingerRobot]

Whoops. Forgot some semi colons. And i can't even blame that on it being tired and late - its midday!

 

Try:

function get_ads($u)
{
				//connect to db
				$connection = db_connect();  

        			//retrieve all ads placed by user but not activated.
       			
			$query="SELECT * FROM ads WHERE user_id='$u'";

			$result= mysql_query($query)or die(mysql_error());
			$num = mysql_num_rows($result);
                if($num == 0)
			{
                    return false;
                }else{       //parse error
                    return $result;
                }
}

[Lassie]

thanks. No errors but no results returned.It goes to my else condition so something wrong somwhere as there are records to retrieve.

I will investigate and give you a rest

thanks