Member Avatar for JERRYBOY78

Hello everyone, i working on a website and i wanna grab data from a table in my database . specifically the last 4 rows that are entered as the database is updated automatically by users. i wanna be able to display each row separately in different div tags. i'm getting a bit of trouble. As i think the data from the table has to be stored in an array and i'm a bit weak in that area. here's what i've done thus far. an example of my div out put is shown below the php tags

<?php
//Perform database query 
$results = mysql_query("SELECT Title FROM News ORDER BY Newsid DESC", $db);
if (!$results) {
	die("Database query failed: " . mysql_error());
		}
 while($row = mysql_fetch_array($results))
{   
   if($row[6] == 0)
	{
	   if(strlen($row[4]) > 600)
		{
		  $brief = substr($row[4], 0, 600) . '...';
		} 
	else
	{
	$brief = $row[4];
	}
} 
else
{
  $brief = $row[5];
}

}					
?>



<div>
<img src="images/image01.jpg" alt="alt text" title="description "/>
<h3><?php  echo $row[?] ?></h3>
<p>	</p>
<a href="http://www.google.com">Link #1</a>
</div>
  • 3 Contributors
  • 2 Replies
  • 112 Views
  • 1 Day Discussion Span
  • Latest Post Latest Post by liamfriel

Dani AI

Generated

The root problems in the posted code are not the database engine alone but where and how the data is selected and rendered. selected only a single column but later used numeric indexes (like row[4], row[6]) and tried to print $row outside the fetch loop — that will either be wrong or only show the last fetched row. and were correct to suggest restricting the query to four rows, but there are a few more practical fixes to make the output reliable and safe.

Practical checklist to fix this reliably:

  • SELECT the exact columns you need (title, body, id, flags, image path) instead of relying on position-based indexes. Use associative fetch so you can reference fields by name and avoid off-by-index bugs.
  • Generate each <div> while fetching a row, or store each associative row in an array and then loop over that array to print. Do not build all HTML before the fetch or try to print a fetch-variable after the loop.
  • When truncating content, use a multibyte-safe routine if your site uses UTF-8; otherwise substr can break characters. Always escape text for HTML output (use htmlspecialchars equivalents) so user content cannot break the page or inject scripts.
  • If you want the newest four but presented oldest-first, fetch the four newest and then reverse the fetched array before output.

Modernization and safety notes:

  • The old mysql_* extension is deprecated; migrate to mysqli or PDO, set the connection charset to utf8mb4, and use prepared statements for any user-supplied inputs.
  • Add basic error checking: detect an empty result set, log query errors, and validate that the column you order by is actually monotonic (use a timestamp column if IDs might not be sequential).

Quick troubleshooting tips:

  • Dump one fetched row with var_dump to confirm column names and values before building HTML.
  • Validate the produced HTML (watch for malformed anchors like nested <a> tags).
  • If results look wrong, run the SQL directly in your DB client to confirm ordering and returned columns.

Recommended Answers

All 2 Replies

Member Avatar for whiteyoh

if you want the last 4, you should order by DESC and add LIMIT 4 into the query

Member Avatar for liamfriel

Simply Change:

$results = mysql_query("SELECT Title FROM News ORDER BY Newsid DESC", $db);

To:

$results = mysql_query("SELECT Title FROM News ORDER BY Newsid DESC LIMIT 4", $db);

This will tell mysql to limit the query to the first 4 results making the query faster.

As for putting in the div tags just change wherever you get data to reflect that i.e.

$brief = '<div>'.substr($row[4], 0, 600) . '...<div>';

or

$brief = '<div>'.$row[4].'</div>';
Edited by liamfriel because: n/a
Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.