Hi;
my first time here, so please be nice...
I am trying to populate a drop down field (part of a form) with the result of my slq query which is like this:

 
$sql = 'SELECT products_description.products_name '
        . ' FROM products_description LEFT JOIN products_to_categories ON products_description.products_id = products_to_categories.products_id '
        . ' WHERE ( ( ( products_to_categories.categories_id ) = 13 ) ) '
        . ' ORDER BY products_description.products_name ; ';

I never done any PHP coding... but I am modifying existing code to insert this additional field.
Thanks
Veronika

PHP Code:

$sql = "...whatever...";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
while ($row = mysql_fetch_object($result)) {
   $rows[] = $row;
}
mysql_free_result($result);
...
foreach ($rows as $r) {
   echo "<option value=\"{$r->id}\">{$r->name}</option>";
} 


Something like that, I guess.

If you meant this, it does not work for me...

 <?
$sql = 'SELECT products_description.products_name '
        . ' FROM products_description LEFT JOIN products_to_categories ON products_description.products_id = products_to_categories.products_id '
        . ' WHERE ( ( ( products_to_categories.categories_id ) = 13 ) ) '
        . ' ORDER BY products_description.products_name ; ';

$result = mysql_query($sql); 
while ($row = mysql_fetch_object($result)) { 
   $rows[] = $row; 
} 
mysql_free_result($result); 

for each ($rows as $r) { 
   echo "<option value=\"{$r->id}\">{$r->name}</option>"; 
}  

?>

But perhaps I misunderstood..

Probably you have to read more about working with mysql in php, native documentation is quite fine for it.

mysql_free_result only needs to be used if you're concerned about memory and with larger results.

What about using mysql_fetch_rows?

I prefer to fetch_objects() since I am used to refering to my data structures as to objects. If you fetch_rows() you wil be unable to call $row->field_name or even $row['field_name'], only $row[0] also having to remember the order of fields in your table and adding new fields very carefully.