Solutions to Common PHP/Mysql Problems

Abstract

We have some unfinished business left over from the last chapter. Figure 13-2 shows content from the journal table with just the first two sentences of each article displayed and a link to the rest of the article. However, I didn’t show you how it was done. The full list of articles in journal_list.php also displays the MySQL timestamp in its raw state, which isn’t very elegant, particularly if you’re using MySQL 3.23 or 4.0. In addition to tidying up those two things, this chapter addresses some of the most common questions about working with PHP and MySQL, such as inserting dates into a database, formatting text retrieved from a database, and working with multiple-table databases. I hope that, by this stage, you have built up sufficient confidence to start adapting scripts without the need for detailed instructions every step of the way, so I’ll concentrate on the main new features.