A query may fail for various reasons in which case both the mysql_* and the mysqli extension will return false from their respective query functions/methods. You need to test for that error condition and handle it accordingly.
Check
$result before passing it to
mysql_fetch_array. You'll find that it's
false because the query failed. See the
mysql_query documentation for possible return values and suggestions for how to deal with them.
$username = mysql_real_escape_string($_POST['username']);
$password = $_POST['password'];
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM Users WHERE UserName LIKE '$username'");
if($result === FALSE) {
die(mysql_error()); // TODO: better error handling
}
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
echo $row['FirstName'];
}
$username = mysqli_real_escape_string($mysqli, $_POST['username']);
$result = mysqli_query($mysqli, "SELECT * FROM Users WHERE UserName LIKE '$username'");
// mysqli_query returns false if something went wrong with the query
if($result === FALSE) {
yourErrorHandler(mysqli_error($mysqli));
}
else {
// as of php 5.4 mysqli_result implements Traversable, so you can use it with foreach
foreach( $result as $row ) {
...
oo-style:
$username = $mysqli->escape_string($_POST['username']);
$result = $mysqli->query("SELECT * FROM Users WHERE UserName LIKE '$username'");
if($result === FALSE) {
yourErrorHandler($mysqli->error); // or $mysqli->error_list
}
else {
// as of php 5.4 mysqli_result implements Traversable, so you can use it with foreach
foreach( $result as $row ) {
...
using a prepared statement:
$stmt = $mysqli->prepare('SELECT * FROM Users WHERE UserName LIKE ?');
if ( !$stmt ) {
yourErrorHandler($mysqli->error); // or $mysqli->error_list
}
else if ( !$stmt->bind_param('s', $_POST['username']) ) {
yourErrorHandler($stmt->error); // or $stmt->error_list
}
else if ( !$stmt->execute() ) {
yourErrorHandler($stmt->error); // or $stmt->error_list
}
else {
$result = $stmt->get_result();
// as of php 5.4 mysqli_result implements Traversable, so you can use it with foreach
foreach( $result as $row ) {
...
These examples only illustrate
what should be done (error handling), not how to do it. Production code shouldn't use
or die when outputting HTML, else it will (at the very least) generate invalid HTML. Also, database error messages shouldn't be displayed to non-admin users, as it
discloses too much information.
