Hiding an item if product name doesn't exist

Question

As the title says, I want to hide an item is the product name doesn't exist.

The problem here is.. When it show the products for the user, it actually show nothing where the //show nothing is placed instead of showing a new product that has a product name.

So sometime it shows 10 products, sometime it shows 5 products, which is not what i want.

I want it to show a new product if a product name is not there.

Any clues on what i change in my code?

my current code is:

Picks 12 random product from the database:

$dynamicList = "";
$sql = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM products ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 12");

Shows the products for the user:

if($product_name == ''){

         //Show nothing

        }else{
    $dynamicList .= 
                '<table border="0" id="indexproducts" style="margin-left:22px; margin-bottom:20px;">
                  <tr>
                    <td id="indexproductfoto" align="center">
                        <a href="http://www.mysite.com/id/'.$id.'/'.$seo8.'/">
                            <img src="http://www.mysite.com/inventoryimages/'.$id.'.jpg" onerror="this.src=\'http://www.mysite.com/inventoryimages/x.jpg\';" />
                        </a>
                    </td>
                  </tr>
                  <tr>
                    <td id="indexproducttext2"><strong>'.$product_name.'</strong><br />
                    </td>
                  </tr>
                  <tr>
                    <td style="color:#F00" id="indexproducttext"><strong>Pris: '.round($price).':-</strong></td>
                    </tr>
                  <tr>
                    <td style="color:#F00" id="indexproducttext"><strong>(Exkl.moms: '.round($price1).':-)</strong></td>
                    </tr>
                    <tr>
                     <td id="indexproducttext"><a href="http://www.mysite.com/id/'.$id.'/'.$seo8.'/">Produktinformation</a></td>
                    </tr>
                </table>';
    }
  }

SELECT * FROM products WHERE product_name <> "" ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 12 — iiro, Jun 27 '13 at 09:25
BTW, `ORDER BY RAND()` is usually _not_ a good idea. See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1244555/how-can-i-optimize-mysqls-order-by-rand-function for an alternative. — Sylvain Leroux, Jun 27 '13 at 09:32
@SylvainLeroux I will consider it as an alternative, thanks. — Jim Sundqvist, Jun 27 '13 at 09:38
This works: $sql = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM products WHERE productname <> '' ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 12"); Thanks iiro — Jim Sundqvist, Jun 27 '13 at 09:40
@iiro Is it possible for you to put it as an answer and perhaps put in a small explanation what <> '' does in this query, so i can choose it as an accepted answer? — Jim Sundqvist, Jun 27 '13 at 09:44

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 27 '13 at 12:58

1

As I commented

try this SQL query

SELECT * FROM products WHERE IFNULL(productname, "") <> "" ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 12

where the operator <> means "not equal" that is same as != So you look for all the products whose name is not empty and whose name is not NULL.

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/comparison-operators.html#operator_not-equal

answered Jun 27 '13 at 12:58

iiro

3,132
1
19
22

Thanks mate! It was really appreciated, and now the question can be set to answered as well! – Jim Sundqvist Jun 27 '13 at 21:19

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 27 '13 at 09:26

0

I would suggest to simply rewrite the query that only products with a productname are returned.

SELECT * FROM products WHERE productname NOT NULL ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 12

answered Jun 27 '13 at 09:26

t7bdh3hdhb

438
3
15

This is actually a good idea, however with the ORDER BY RAND(), it doesn't seem to work. – Jim Sundqvist Jun 27 '13 at 09:35

Hiding an item if product name doesn't exist

2 Answers2