PHP, My select box isn't populating properly, I am just getting lines of code

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<td>
        <h4>To view discounts, simply select from a category below.</h4><br />
        <!-- List Category Box -->
 
        <?php
        $db = new mysqli('50.62.209.81:3306','user','password','MassWarVetsADM');
        $query="SELECT Category FROM Category";
        $result = mysql_query ($query);
        echo "<select name='categoriesSelect' class='e1'><option value='0'>Please Select A Category</option>";
 
        // printing the list box select command
        while($categoryinfo=mysql_fetch_array($result)){//Array or records stored in $nt
        echo "<option value=\"".htmlspecialchars($categoryinfo['category'])."\">".$categoryinfo['category']."</option>";
        }
        echo"</select>";
        ?>

When I look at my page in firefox/IE/chrome I get this: http://tinypic.com/r/2eqc22v/8[^]

I removed the username&pw for security reasons. What am I doing wrong?

This should print inside the select box the list of 35 or so categories listed in the Category column of the Category table inside my database

Posted 29-Jul-14 14:21pm

Member 10964144

Updated 29-Jul-14 14:24pm

v3

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nice_hand23 · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-01T00:00:00

This is object oriented style:

PHP

$db = new mysqli('50.62.209.81:3306','user','password','MassWarVetsADM');

This is procedural style:

PHP

$result = mysql_query ($query);

i) don't mix these two styles
ii) don't use mysql_query, cause it's deprecated
iii) htmlspecialchars() is probably not the desired decoding.

For example you could make a query like the following:

PHP

$db = new mysqli('50.62.209.81:3306','user','password','MassWarVetsADM');
$query="SELECT Category FROM Category";
if ($result = $mysqli->query($query)){
   echo "<select name="categoriesSelect" class="e1">";
   echo "<option value="0">Please Select A Category</option>";
   while($categoryinfo = $result->fetch_assoc()){
      $sCategory = $categoryinfo['category'];
      echo "<option value="\"".$sCategory" .="\">".$sCategory ."</option>";
   }
   echo "</select>";
}else{
   echo "No items to select.";
}

The above example you could expand with try/catch and more...

You find more details about using the mysqli-extension on:
mysqli-class
mysqli-query
mysqli-result-class
mysqli-fetch_assoc