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PHP Integrating PHP with Databases Limiting Records in SQL Simplifying with a Function

Eric Schroeder
Eric Schroeder
19,894 Points
Posted by Eric Schroeder
Eric Schroeder
19,894 Points

The function did not echo "bad query" within the select tag.

When I ran this for the first time I had a typo in the query and the page would not display any html after the genre drop down. It also didn't display the text "bad query". If I ran the function outside of the select tag it would give me the "bad query" message. Is there a way to display this error within the select tag as intended? If the database was not available it would be nice to relay that message to the user instead of the page not fully loading.

1 Answer

Unsubscribed User
Unsubscribed User
8,428 Points
Unsubscribed User
Unsubscribed User
8,428 Points

I realize this is a fairly old question but I took a stab at it. It seems that to do what you suggest and create output for a user to see you would need to setup your logic to include html output in the try block for successful queries as well as setup some html in your catch block to display any message you would want to give to a user.

<?php

try{
        $result = $db->prepare("
            SELECT genre 
            FROM genres 
            JOIN genre_categories ON genres.genre_id=genre_categories.genre_id
            WHERE category = ?;
        ");
        $result->bindParam(1, $category, PDO::PARAM_STR);
        $result->execute();

        foreach($result as $item){
            $genreitem = $item['genre'];
            $categories = "<option value=\"$genreitem\"";

            if (isset($genre) && $genre==$genreitem) {
                $categories .= " selected";
            } 

            $categories .= ">$genreitem</option>";

            echo $categories;
        }

    }catch (Exception $e) {

            $genreitem = "Sorry, something went wrong and we could not find our categories.";
            $categories = "<option value=\"$genreitem\"";

            if (isset($genre) && $genre==$genreitem) {
                $categories .= " selected";
            } 

            $categories .= ">$genreitem</option>";

            echo $categories;

    }