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up vote -2 down vote favorite

I'm pretty new to php.. and this is probably a stupid mistake... but I have no idea what is going on. I'm trying to create a table in my database using php. I want to name the table after the username. I'm using the variable $tableusername. Here's my code

$sql="SELECT * FROM userdata WHERE username='$username'";
$result=mysql_query($sql);

while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
        {
            $tableusername = $row["username"];
        }

$create = "CREATE TABLE `".$tableusername."` ('
    . ' `ID` INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, '
    . ' `please` VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL, '
    . ' `make` VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL, '
    . ' `this` VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL, '
    . ' `work` VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL'
    . ' )'
    . ' ENGINE = myisam;";

mysql_query($create)


?>

<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
You have successfully signed up. <?php echo $tableusername ?>
</body>
</html>

So- This creates a table named $tableusername. The variable doesn't carry over. BUT- when I echo $tableusername - the variable carries over. I'm pretty new to this - so any help is appreciated.

Thank you!

share|improve this question
3  
Please, don't use mysql_* functions to write new code. They are no longer maintained and the community has begun deprecation process. See the red box? Instead you should learn about prepared statements and use either PDO or MySQLi. If you can't decide which, this article will help you. If you pick PDO, here is good tutorial. Also see Why shouldn't I use mysql functions in PHP? – Madara Uchiha Oct 21 '12 at 17:30
$username and $tableusername are the same according to your code :) – Alexander Oct 21 '12 at 17:32
1  
Why create a table for every user? – Mark Baker Oct 21 '12 at 17:34

3 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

Add this after your SQL querys - (It really helps and speeds up error correcting time) 

or die("A MySQL error has occurred.<br />Error: (" . mysql_errno() . ") " . mysql_error());

echos this in your instance:

A MySQL error has occurred. Error: (1064) You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '' . ' ID INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, ' . ' please VARCH' at line 1

This then indicates to me that the error regards " & '.

After changing the code to contain single quotes and executing it, there is now no echo. 

   <?php
    $tableusername = "philip";
    $create = "CREATE TABLE `".$tableusername."` ("
        . " `ID` INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, "
        . " `please` VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL, "
        . " `make` VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL, "
        . " `this` VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL, "
        . " `work` VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL"
        . " )"
        . " ENGINE = myisam;";

    mysql_query($create)or die("A MySQL error has occurred.<br />Error: (" . mysql_errno() . ") " . mysql_error());

    ?>

Note: Please refer to the MySQLi extension when using SQL embedded in PHP. mysql_* is in a deprecation process.

Hope this helps.

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THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! this made it work! Pefect! – Sean McCully Oct 21 '12 at 17:46
I'm glad I could help – PhilNerd Oct 21 '12 at 17:55
up vote 1 down vote

you have invalid concatenation of string, use double quotes instead of single quotes.

$create = "CREATE TABLE `".$tableusername."` ("
    . " `ID` INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, "
    . " `please` VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL, "
    . " `make` VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL, "
    . " `this` VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL, "
    . " `work` VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL' "
    . " )"
    . " ENGINE = myisam;";
share|improve this answer
Is there any particular reason you are saying to use double quotes instead of single quotes, rather than just ensuring that they match? – Waleed Khan Oct 21 '12 at 17:37
@WaleedKhan look at the code in the question above, the single quotes are included inside the string. – JW 웃 Oct 21 '12 at 17:39
I mean to say that it would work equally well if single-quotes were used rather than double-quotes. I'm just wondering why you choose one over the other. – Waleed Khan Oct 21 '12 at 17:41
up vote 0 down vote

Use a heredoc:

$create = <<<SQL
CREATE TABLE `$tableusername` (
    `ID` INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
    `please` VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
    `make` VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
    `this` VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
    `work` VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL
)
ENGINE = myisam;
SQL;

Notably, you can use string interpolation in a heredoc, but you should really tend toward parametrized queries.

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