Problem updating MySQL database with PHP script

Updating doesn't work using php script, please help.

[stevenm]

I can't get the following code to work. I am trying to update a news story based on the input from a form. This is the script I am using to process the form. Is anything obviously wrong?

<? 
# tip: its always best to have an include file with all your 
# database information in one location. I'll post this file next. 
include 'db.php'; 
# grab the POST variables from the HTML form, 
# put them into PHP variables so we can work with them 
$ud_id = $_POST['ud_id']; 
$ud_title = $_POST['ud_title']; 
$ud_article = $_POST['ud_article']; 
$ud_blurb = $_POST['ud_blurb']; 
$ud_author = $_POST['ud_author']; 
$ud_sdate = $_POST['ud_sdate']; 
$ud_simage = $_POST['ud_simage']; 
$ud_id = stripslashes($ud_id); 
$ud_title = stripslashes($ud_title); 
$ud_article = nl2br($ud_article); 
$ud_blurb = nl2br($ud_blurb); 
$ud_author = stripslashes($ud_author); 
$ud_sdate = stripslashes($ud_sdate); 
$ud_simage = stripslashes($ud_simage); 
# everything checks out so far, so lets update the story! 
$sql = mysql_query ("UPDATE news SET title='$ud_title', article='$ud_article', blurb='$ud_blurb', author='$ud_author', sdate='$ud_sdate', simage='$ud_simage' WHERE id='$ud_id'"); 
mysql_close();
echo 'News Story Updated Successfully. Return to Admin Area. <a href="newsadmin.php">here</a>'; 
?> 

[dreamcatcher]

Hi stevenm,

Welcome to WebmasterWorld. :)

A couple of things. Firstly, use mysql_error for debugging. This usually helps find a database error.

$sql = mysql_query ("UPDATE news SET title='$ud_title', article='$ud_article', blurb='$ud_blurb', author='$ud_author', sdate='$ud_sdate', simage='$ud_simage' WHERE id='$ud_id'") or die(mysql_error());

Secondly, always use mysql_real_escape_string [php.net] when sending post data to your database. An easy way to prepare data for importing is to use array_map [php.net]. So, before your query add:

$_POST = array_map('mysql_real_escape_string',$_POST);

My guess is you probably have a single quote or some other character thats causing the query to fail.

dc

[stevenm]

Hi

Thanks a lot for the warm welcome. :)

I can't see any obvious errors in the code, which is very frustrating! More so because I am trying to write this for a client who wants it tomorrow!