PHP placing image outside table

So I have a PHP script that is echoing a table. Data is loaded from a MySQL Database and placed inside the table. Once the data is loaded the script checks to see what category the data is for, and loads an image based on the category number. However, when the page loads, it is displaying the image outside the table. I am assuming this has to do with the function being called in the middle of an echo. Is this correct and how can I fix it?

I am thinking it may have to do with open tags that were not closed, or did not need to be there. For example, on line #4, you have a strong element open there with no closing tag. I would recommend removing that. By looking at your next row which has two cells, I am almost thinking that is an entire extra td block that you may want to remove.

Let me know if that fixes anything.

I tried cleaning up the code, but no luck. I did some more digging and I think its related to the function that is loading the image file. When I change my code a bit, and store the image link in the database, it loads it just fine:



When I use the function to load the images, it loads it before the table starts. So I'm getting <img><table>.

My database stores a ID for what category the post is in, then the function loads an image based on the category number and displays it. I could modify the insert code so it inserts the image link in the database, based on which category is selected, but I would far prefer to do it through a function.

I see that makes it a bit more clear when have the function shown there. In your function you are echoing the output, which you are correct, that gets displayed immediately. What you should do instead is return that string instead of output it. So the following:



Then in your HTML code (with PHP), you would do the echoing there. So something like this:



See if that helps

By the way Poly, just on a side note you don't have to echo all of your HTML content like that with PHP. The one nice thing about PHP is you can separate HTML and your PHP code. So with the above you could do this instead:



The above is how I would typically do it so that it makes it easier to use either " (double quote) or ' (single quote) in your code as you don't have to worry about escaping them, and easier to output results from functions. I also think it looks cleaner and is less error prone. Of course you are welcome to use whatever style works for you, but I just thought I would throw that out there in case you did not know you could do it a different way

Thanks BWM. That got it working, its now loading an image in the correct spot, just not the correct image.

In the database, one of the columns is "cat" which is for the category. This is an integer value. The function check what int value is in the database, based of which tutorial ID you clicked on, then loads the appropriate image.

EX: ID: 1, cat: 1, image: php.jpg

This should load the PHP icon. Instead it is loading the No Image Found image(which is the else condition in the function).



Basically, all this should do is compare the int in 'cat' to a list, and display the corresponding image. However, regardless of the number in the database, it is loading the else condition.

Glad that fixed your other problem!

I think your other problem here is that you are most likely not accessing the return $row array correctly. Before I get to that your query might be more efficient using the equal sign versus LIKE. I would typically only use LIKE if you are just trying to find part of a value in a larger string or something. So with your above query I would change it to:



Also make sure $id is well sanitized or you could open yourself up to some sort of SQL injection attack on your website.

Back to your actual question when you go:



That is storing an entire array in the $row variable. That means that $row is not actually your "cat", its the entire array of values. You should actually probably access it like:

$row['cat']

So with that said everything put together would be:



Also you could even simplifier this much more if you would store the image name in your database as a new field with all of your data. This would also make it much easier to add new categories down the road. Let's say in your database you had these fields for your tutorials table:

id
cat
image

Then you could do this instead:



Hopefully something there helps you

I added the image field into the database, and attempted to load it using the function, but instead of loading the image, it is outputting <img src='' />. I also tried the other option you suggested, but it still results in it defaulting to the else condition(nif.jpg). I also updated to the = instead of LIKE. Any ideas good sir?

Can you go into something such as phpMyAdmin and run a query that looks like this:



See if that at least is returning results. If it is then in your PHP file right after this line:



Type in this:



and let me know what the results are.

Generated the SQL code as you would expect. It loaded the cat and image fields from the row with the ID of 3.

Adding

returned nothing. It ended the HTML, and generated nothing else.

That shows that the problem is with this line then:



Are you sure you are connected to a database correctly?

Could you also do a:



right after the spot where you set the query string. I would be curious to what the actual SQL query that gets set is. Maybe its possible $id is not being set.

Bingo. The $id is not being set. When I echo the query, its outputting

I am loading the function from function.php, which is the second thing to get loaded on the page, after the database connection is made.

I am guessing that you probably have the $id set somewhere out side of that function. Typically what you would do is start the function like this:



and then when you call the function you would do something like this:



That would be the preferred way. A more sloppy/lazy way would be to just declare the $id as global in the function and then it would access it outside. So you would do someting like this instead:



and then the $id should actually contain a value if you have it set somewhere in your application before you called that function. Remember when your write functions all variables are local to that function and cannot access anything outside of that function unless they have a global scope.

Thanks, that got it sorted out!

Glad it finally all works