Select failing on hyphenated column name

Question

I want to select two fields from the database, id an photo-url.

Code is:

$results = mysqli_query($connecDB,"SELECT id, photo-url FROM list ORDER BY id ASC LIMIT ".$position.", ".$item_per_page."");

while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($results)){
    echo '<li id="item_'.$row["id"].'">'.$row["id"].'. <span class="page_name">'.$row["photo-url"].'</li>';
}
echo '</ul>';

Problem is:

Warning: mysqli_fetch_array() expects parameter 1 to be mysqli_result, boolean given in...(line while).

`photo-url` wrap that column name in ticks `\``. SQL is interpreting that as "photo MINUS url". Or rename it using an underscore. Somebody's going to put in an answer, so just wait for it. — Funk Forty Niner, Jan 05 '15 at 18:07
Fred post it as answer you deserve the credit since you were the first — Oliver M Grech, Jan 05 '15 at 18:11
@OliverMGrech Thanks Oliver, *cheers*. I always like to explain to the OP as to why it fails, instead of just dropping a piece of code with nothing to back it with. — Funk Forty Niner, Jan 05 '15 at 18:14
Totally agreed but it's a pity some (not all) people will be quick enough to leech credit(rep). Regards — Oliver M Grech, Jan 05 '15 at 18:16
Voting to reopen because the suggested duplicate is really about debugging similar problems and not about the root cause of the failure. — JasonMArcher, Jan 05 '15 at 18:51
**WARNING**: When using `mysqli` you should be using parameterized queries and [`bind_param`](http://php.net/manual/en/mysqli-stmt.bind-param.php) to add user data to your query. **DO NOT** use string concatenation to accomplish this because you will create severe [SQL injection bugs](http://bobby-tables.com/). — tadman, Jan 05 '15 at 19:16

Funk Forty Niner · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-05T18:29:18.243

7

photo-url wrap that column name in ticks. SQL is interpreting that as "photo MINUS url".

SELECT id, `photo-url`

or rename it using an underscore

SELECT id, photo_url

that way you won't have to use ticks.

edited Jan 05 '15 at 18:29

answered Jan 05 '15 at 18:11

Funk Forty Niner

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score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 05 '15 at 18:50

1

$results = mysqli_query($connecDB, "SELECT `id`, `photo-url` FROM `list` ORDER BY `id` ASC LIMIT ".$position.", ".$item_per_page."");

Use the ` symbol in queries to quote the names of fields or tables.

edited Jan 05 '15 at 18:50

JasonMArcher

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answered Jan 05 '15 at 18:09

DDeme

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Select failing on hyphenated column name

2 Answers2