Creating MySQL Tables using PHP--quick question.

[hotwire132002]

Hey,

I'm working on a newsroom automation script in PHP. I've got just about everything down, except for one thing. I'm trying to create a page that will create a new table--you know, you enter the name for the table in a textbox, then the script runs a MySQL query to create the table.

This is probably a stupid question, but I can't get this to work. I want to plug in a script that basically runs the following query:

CREATE TABLE '$table' (id int(6) NOT NULL ... etc etc

I think the problem with the above line of code is the fact that MySQL recognizes the apostrophes to be the end of the query--but if I try to run the query without them, it names the table $table. Does anyone have a solution to this?

As you can probably tell, I'm still learning PHP.

 

[Nermal]

CREATE TABLE '$table' (id int(6) NOT NULL ... etc etc

I'm still new to PHP, but try:

CREATE TABLE ' . $table . ' (id int....

 

[hotwire132002]

I'm still new to PHP, but try:

CREATE TABLE ' . $table . ' (id int....

No luck. Any other ideas?

EDIT: I made it work! Slight glitch in your code, Nermal--using " instead of ' worked for some reason. The . $table . code did the trick, though! Thanks!

 

[Rower_CPU]

Yeah, for some functions there is a difference between single and double quotes. Always check the documentation when in doubt.

 

[MontyZ]

The reason the single quotes didn't work is because PHP will only recognize a variable within a text string that is delimited with double-quotes. If you put the variable in single quotes, PHP intreprets it literally.

$var = 'Apple';

echo 'Eat this $var' // will be interpreted as Eat this $var

echo "Eat this $var" // will be interpreted as Eat this Apple

 

[pulsewidth947]

The other thing worth mentioning is PHPMyAdmin. Thats a web gui for MySQL, but the advantage is you can insert things into tables and tell it to generate the PHP code for what you just did, which you can then look at and edit for your PHP pages.

Maybe not the best explanation, but it really is useful.

 

[ThatSoundAgain]

The other thing worth mentioning is PHPMyAdmin. Thats a web gui for MySQL, but the advantage is you can insert things into tables and tell it to generate the PHP code for what you just did, which you can then look at and edit for your PHP pages.

Maybe not the best explanation, but it really is useful.

I second that. I'm lucky that my webhost has it installed and running by default. It's invaluable for debugging homebrew-backends. It lets you inspect data to make sure everything goes where it's supposed to, and you can even type in queries and get feedback on any errors.

That said, I think that there's even a third kind of quotes that MySQL uses, the ` or accent grave (normally is used as an accent, like this: è à). My queries typically look something like this:

$query = "INSERT INTO `blog` (`title`,`text`,`date`) VALUES ('$title','$text','$date');";
$result = mysql_query($query);

Names of tables and fields go in accent grave-quotes, values go in single. The whole thing goes in doubles.

I got into the habit of using this format since I couldn't get it to accept table-names with hyphens in them otherwise. Or was it underscores? I forget.

 

[hotwire132002]

The other thing worth mentioning is PHPMyAdmin. Thats a web gui for MySQL, but the advantage is you can insert things into tables and tell it to generate the PHP code for what you just did, which you can then look at and edit for your PHP pages.

Maybe not the best explanation, but it really is useful.

I usually use PHPMyAdmin--but for the script I was working on, I needed to create tables without logging in to my web site admin panel. So, I needed the variable solution. PHPMyAdmin is a lifesaver, though! I doubt I'd be doing as much with MySQL as I am without it!

 

[yklxcq]

The other thing worth mentioning is PHPMyAdmin. Thats a web gui for MySQL, but the advantage is you can insert things into tables and tell it to generate the PHP code for what you just did, which you can then look at and edit for your PHP pages.

Maybe not the best explanation, but it really is useful.

Does the phpMyAdmin support mac platform?

 

[hotwire132002]

Does the phpMyAdmin support mac platform?

Yes it does--it runs on PHP, so it runs on Mac.

 

[Rower_CPU]

Yes it does--it runs on PHP, so it runs on Mac.

To clarify, it runs on a server so any web browser, PC or Mac, should work on it.

 

[yklxcq]

To clarify, it runs on a server so any web browser, PC or Mac, should work on it.

thx