Error matching field data

[spmckee]

Greetings,

 

I have a data field in mySQL that reads "Fish and Shellfish", when I try to match it with the same string I get this error:

Error in query: SELECT `cat_id` FROM `categories` WHERE `cat_name` = Fish and Shellfish. Unknown column 'Fish' in 'where clause

 

Basically it breaks when it hits the whitespace in the field data. Any ideas?

 

Thanks

[uniflare]

you need to encapsulate string in mysql with single quotes, eg:

 

SELECT `cat_id` FROM `categories` WHERE `cat_name` = Fish and Shellfish

 

should be

 

SELECT `cat_id` FROM `categories` WHERE `cat_name` = 'Fish and Shellfish'

[ohdang888]

your query must be this

 

 

mysql_query("SELECT `cat_id` FROM `categories` WHERE `cat_name` =  'Fish and Shellfish' ")or die(mysql_error());

[uniflare]

oops, also you will prbably need to do something like this instead:

 

SELECT `cat_id` FROM `categories` WHERE `cat_name` = 'Fish' OR `cat_name` = 'Shellfish'

 

or you could even:

 

SELECT `cat_id` FROM `categories` WHERE `cat_name` LIKE '%fish%'

 

(i believe most mysql installations are case sensitive, you need to change the mysql character table to make it insensitive)

 

hope this helps,

[spmckee]

Thanks for the swift reply but I think it will make it clearer if I include the whole piece. This is part of a function:

function get_cat_id($which_one){
		$query = "SELECT `cat_id` FROM `categories` WHERE `cat_name` = $which_one";
		$result=mysql_query($query) or die ("Error in query: $query. " . mysql_error());
		while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {$which_one=$row['cat_id'];};
		return $which_one;
	}

 

How do I translate your tips into the function?

 

Thanks again.

[uniflare]

what exactly do you want this function to return?

[MadTechie]

change

$query = "SELECT `cat_id` FROM `categories` WHERE `cat_name` = $which_one";

to

$query = "SELECT `cat_id` FROM `categories` WHERE `cat_name` = '$which_one' ";

or

$query = "SELECT `cat_id` FROM `categories` WHERE `cat_name` LIKE '%$which_one%' ";

[spmckee]

Thanks for the help all. MadTechie, you got it straightened out for me.

 

Thanks again.