Php post name & age to MySql database

Question

Back to the basics.
I have a simple form to post in my database.
Can anybody suggest how I make a variable to catch the list selection and text field?
Your name: A value is required.
Your age: 22
23
24
25
then below is the action.php file that posts to the page first, and to the db.
It works except I don`t get the input values passed into the db.
I get name & age (no numbers and only the default `name`)
Hi .
You are years old.
Thank you for any help!

Answer 1

I declared the variables in the php file, and it works now thank you.
<?php $name=$_POST['name'];$age=$_POST['age'];?>
<?php mysql_query("INSERT INTO example
(name, age) VALUES('$name', '$age' ) ")
or die(mysql_error()); 
echo "Data Inserted!";?>
I have 2 questions about this;
1.) Is this the proper format or does the var declaration go inside the other php code?
2.) how would I add the function to the above code to stop SQL injection?
Here is what I found, just not sure where to put it:
//NOTE: you must be connected to the database to use this function!
// connect to MySQL
$name_bad = "' OR 1'";
$name_bad = mysql_real_escape_string($name_bad);
$query_bad = "SELECT * FROM customers WHERE username = '$name_bad'";
echo "Escaped Bad Injection: <br />" . $query_bad . "<br />";
$name_evil = "'; DELETE FROM customers WHERE 1 or username = '";
$name_evil = mysql_real_escape_string($name_evil);
$query_evil = "SELECT * FROM customers WHERE username = '$name_evil'";
echo "Escaped Evil Injection: <br />" . $query_evil;