Getting an error when trying to write to MySQL database from PHP, while reading from the databse works fine

Question

I have the following code in a PHP file to process the data from a form the user fills out. They input numeric score predictions for football matches, and I take them and add them to a database so they can be displayed on a later page on the website.

$servername = "127.0.0.1";
$username = "root";
$password = NULL;
$dbname = "worldCup";

$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);
if ($conn->connect_error) {
die("There's been a glitch in the matrix: " . $conn->connect_error);
}

$sql = "INSERT INTO teamResults (Awinner, Arunner, Bwinner, Brunner, Cwinner, Crunner, Dwinner, Drunner) VALUES ($Awinner, $Arunner, $Bwinner, $Brunner, $Cwinner, $Crunner, $Dwinner, $Drunner)";
if ($conn->query($sql)) {
    echo "New record created successfully";
} else {
    echo "Error: " . $sql . "<br>" . $conn->error;
}

$conn->close();

When I do this, I get an error saying that "Unknown column "Russia" in field list". "Russia" is the content of the first variable, Awinner. Anybody know what's going on here?

NOTE: When reading from the database on other webpages, it works fine, and reads the default placeholder data I manually put into the database through MySQL. AFAIK it is not an issue with connecting to the actual MySQL database. Could there be something in the actual settings of the MySQL database that I need to activate in order to edit from PHP?

Use a prepared statement instead, then you won't get issues like this. — Qirel, Mar 12 '19 at 09:52

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 12 '19 at 09:51

MySQL needs user supplied field values enclosed with single quotes.

So, your SQL corrected will be:

$sql = "INSERT INTO teamResults (Awinner, Arunner, Bwinner,
Brunner, Cwinner, Crunner, Dwinner, Drunner) 
VALUES ('$Awinner', '$Arunner', '$Bwinner', 
'$Brunner', '$Cwinner', '$Crunner', '$Dwinner', '$Drunner')";

Getting an error when trying to write to MySQL database from PHP, while reading from the databse works fine

1 Answers1