While loop print additional empty line

Question

I have the following while loop, which I used to create a drop-list select containing date fetched from database:

$sql = "SELECT name FROM persons";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
    echo "<option value='" . $row['name'] . "'>" . $row['name'] . "</option>";
}

The while loop prints an additional empty line into the drop list, i.e. there is an empty line appearing in the list. How can I avoid that?

Minor side-note: If the value is the same as the displayed text, you can omit the `value` attribute - it will default to the displayed text. `` will yield "John Smith" as its value. — Niet the Dark Absol, Apr 14 '16 at 15:59
Voted to close - there is a `NULL` or `empty` record in your db. — skrilled, Apr 14 '16 at 16:00
Stop using MySQL, [start using MySQLi](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12020227/updating-from-mysql-to-mysqli) . You will live to enjoy the change :-) — Martin, Apr 14 '16 at 16:05

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 14 '16 at 15:59

1

Nothing in this code prints an empty option. Are you sure you don't have a record in your database where name is NULL or empty?

Try adding

WHERE name IS NOT NULL and name != ""

to your query

answered Apr 14 '16 at 15:59

Wojciech Zylinski

1,995
13
19

Codar · Answer 2 · 2016-04-14T22:06:03.470

0

Sounds like you have empty row in your results from the database. You can check the persons table for this or you could fix it in the code by doing something like the following:

$sql = "SELECT name FROM persons";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
    if (!empty($row['name'])) {
        echo "<option value='" . $row['name'] . "'>" . $row['name'] . "</option>";

    }
}

edited Apr 14 '16 at 22:06

answered Apr 14 '16 at 16:02

Codar

1
3

1

This will still print an empty option since isset() will return true as the value may be an empty string. You should use !empty() instead – Wojciech Zylinski Apr 14 '16 at 16:05
Doh wasn't paying attention. Updated. – Codar Apr 14 '16 at 22:07

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 14 '16 at 16:05

Just use PHP empty function like this:

$sql = "SELECT name FROM persons";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
    while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
         if(!empty($row['name']))
        {
            echo "<option value='" . $row['name'] . "'>" . $row['name'] . "</option>";
        }
}

While loop print additional empty line

3 Answers3