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DB Column contains commas

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DB Column contains commas

Dec 16th, 2007

I have a mysql database with user input fields. Some of these varchar fields contain commas as part of the data. When I try to display these fields they are treated as arrays and display only the first "element". This occurs both with mysql_fetch_row() and mysql_fetch_array(). I'm chagrined I haven't run into this before, perhaps because commas have generally been limited to text fields. Any help on this would be appreciated.

Scott Holmes

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FireNet

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Re: DB Column contains commas

Dec 16th, 2007

use the function mysql_escape_string();

It will make sure all the characters are escaped and safe to use in a mysql query

escaping a character is adding a \ in front of a character. Eg: \'

Hope that fixes your problem.

Last edited by FireNet; Dec 16th, 2007 at 4:56 pm.

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Re: DB Column contains commas

Dec 16th, 2007

mysql_escape_string() doesn't solve my problem. The database field (bdyprt varchar(75)) contains the string "Neck, back, shoulders, dizziness and headaches" (I've quoted it here for clarity).

I fetch a row, thus: $res = mysql_fetch_row($this->res); or even as
$this->ap80rec = mysql_fetch_assoc($this->res);
echo $res[4] ; displays Neck
Either mysql or PHP is treating $res[4] as an array and is only giving me the first element.. I'm obviously missing something as phpMyAdmin fetches and displays the string correctly.

Scott Holmes

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MickRip

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Re: DB Column contains commas

Dec 16th, 2007

Try peeking inside the row result with something like this.

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echo "<pre>\n";
print_f($this->result); // or whatever the result set var is called.
echo "</pre>\n";
echo "<pre>\n";
print_f($this->result); // or whatever the result set var is called.
echo "</pre>\n";

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Re: DB Column contains commas

Dec 17th, 2007

As I'd mentioned, it prints the first assumed element in what it thinks is an array (Neck). If I change all the commas in the field to semicolons, the data displays fine. Most of my earlier web app work was done using Postgresql and I don't recall ever having this problem so I rather suspect something on the mysql side. Also, I'm trying this with PHP5 - in case that makes any difference.

$res[4]: Neck; back; shoulders; dizziness and headaches

Scott Holmes