Need Help with IMG+PHP Database+Selective Display

Question

The problem is really a lot simpler than I made it sounds to
be, though I fear the answer might be vice versa.
I need to have pictures appear when they exist. That's all.
Here is where I am at:
I have created a php database for a news announcement page.
In that database, I have a column named "img" whose default value
is "null"
Whenever I actually have a picture corrosponding to a
particular news, the "img" column will change to the file name of
that image, which I will then extract.
So basically... if news A, img = null... no picture. news B
img = b... then yes picture. very simple concept for database.
Here's what I can't do.
When I read the database from DW, how can I make it so that
when it reads a "null" it won't insert a picture and vice versa? I
figure it definitely has to do with the "if" statement (duh...)
I know how to make text do that effect...
<? if $row_data['text'] != null
echo("i have data");
?>
but how do i do it with an image? I tried putting the image
tag to replace the entire "echo" line, but that's apparently not
how you do it. I tried putting it inside "echo", but that doesn't
seem to be it either.
also, as a premise, all pictures are associated with only 1
particular news.
which i wrote something similar to this:
<img src="<?php echo $row_data['img']; ?>.jpg"
width="200" height="200" />
Um, basically... I need THAT to fit into the IF statement. So
thanks in advance.

Answer 1

if (!is_null($row_data['img']))
echo '<img src="',$row_data['img'],'.jpg" width="200"
height="200" />';
Let's break that down into the following:
echo '<img src="' ;
echo $row_data['img'] ;
echo '.jpg" width="200" height="200" />' ;
When you string multiple echoes together use a comma between
them,. so now
we have:
echo '<img src="',$row_data['img'],'.jpg" width="200"
height="200" />';
(You may also use a period, but my understanding is the
period is less
efficient.)
I only have single quotes in my PHP statements. The double
quotes you see
are part of what will be the rendered HTML.
You may generally use the single quote or double quote
interchangeably with
few exceptions such as having double quotes as part of the
text or vice
versa among others. You can probably escape the characters
too, but lets
keep this simple for now.
If I misspoke I am sure Micha will be sure to correct me.
IMO The best thing to do is learn by trial and error, and
your best resource
on the net for PHP is probably the php website. www.php.net
"Bih Wang" <[email protected]> wrote in
message
news:gr3p0m$293$[email protected]..
> thanks so much!
>
> is how i interpret the code correct?
>
> if (!is_null($row_data['img'])) ---> if img is false
> echo <--- maybe i been using this without
understanding it correctly...
> echo
> means to display on screen but not limited to text
right?
>
> and the rest is where you lost me... i don't get the
punctuations
>
> bracket double quote (" is for text right?
> so single quote ' means to accept a php function or html
code?
>
> so can i do this?
> '<div bob>blah'
> and have div bob appear only when the conditions are
met?
>
> and external data is define by comma?
> such as... if i pre-define value "x"
> so i can do img src=',x,'.jpg?
>
> thanks again! is there a tutorial i can read for these?
>
>