using a PHP script to return values from SQL table

Question

I am attempting to search a SQL table from a PHP script. the SQL table is a word list and in the PHP I call a Python script to do the permutations of a given word. Everything is working until I actually go to execute the mysql_query. I need some formatting advice on how to pass so many values to a Select statement. From what I've seen it needs to be in the form ('a','b','c',...) and this is how it is formatted but I'm not getting a return on the actual execution.

<?php
ini_set('display_errors','On');
error_reporting(E_ALL);
$con= mysql_connect("127.0.0.1","app","");
if (!$con)
  {
  die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
  }
mysql_select_db("wordlookup");


//Retrieve the data.
$word = $_POST['data'];


$perm = exec("python comb.py $word");

$query="SELECT * FROM words WHERE IN (" .$perm. ")";
print $query;
$sql=mysql_query($query);
print $sql;



mysql_close($con);
?>

This is all of the PHP file, the output from the python call would be in the 'a','b','c'... format and the random prints are just debugging. The print $sql doesn't actually put out anything at the moment. Thanks, Kyle

Answer 1

SELECT * FROM words WHERE IN (...)

Your query is missing a condition. WHERE what IN ...? You need to fill in a column name there.

Further, if a query is not working, ask the database why it didn't work:

$result = mysql_query($query);
if (!$result) {
    echo mysql_error();
}

Answer 2

Though solution is strange (use external script executed via exec to calculate permutations?), I'd answer your exact question.

$perm_arr = explode(' ', $perm);
function quote($str) { return "'$str'"; }
$perm_arr = array_map('quote', $perm_arr);
$sql = "select * from words where word in (" . join(', ', $perm_arr) . ")";