newbie - what does this code mean?
 

Hi,

Warning I'm a total newbie at both php and any type of coding at all. I was hoping someone could explain a line of code in a for loop for a php/mysql tutorial that I I've been trying to do. The following is the loop:

for ($i=0; $i< $nRows; $i++){


$row = mysql_fetch_array($qResult);


$rString .="&ID".$i."=".$row['ID']."&visitor".$i."=".$row['visitor']."&time".$i."=".$row['time']."&comment".$i."=".$row['comment'];
}


echo $rString."&";

The part I don't fully grasp is:

$rString .="&ID".$i."=".$row['ID']."&visitor".$i."=".$row['visitor']."&time".$i."=".$row['time']."&comment".$i."=".$row['comment'];
}


My guess is this formats the output and calls the variables that will display in the echo $rString."&"; I guess what I don't understand is partially syntax related. I understand that the stuff with $ in it are variables and the stuff in the [ ] refers to items in the array but I don't understand what the stuff with the ampersand is doing. Also why does the = sign have to be in quotes? Thanks.

djscour

Hey djscour,

Wow, that lines a bit of a mouthful isn't it, you could do with breaking it down if you're struggling
The ampersand (&) is a variable separator, generally used in querystring's (url) or for loading into another language such as flash.
How is $rString being used, in terms of where else is it called in the script?

Regarding the equal sign (=), $rString is being used to concatenate different variables into one string, the full output would look something like:
Hope this helps a little :)

Hey Flying Buddha (by the way cool name),

Thanks a lot for responding. That definitely helped me understand a bit more.

That's precisely what the tutorial is doing - using a flash interface.

Also thanks for the alternate way of writing out that code. It is way easier to read that way.

DJScour