select statement not keeping the variable

[wickedneat]

I have a select function that looks like this:

<? 
$db_host = "1234";
$db_user = "1234";
$db_pwd = "1234";
$db_name = "1234"; 

mysql_connect($db_host, $db_user, $db_pwd); 

mysql_select_db($db_name); 

$sql = "SELECT username, firstname, lastname FROM authorize "; 
$result = mysql_query($sql); 
?> 
<form action="mod2.php" method="post"> 
<select name="username"> 
<? 
while($row=mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) 
{ 
$username = $row['username']; 
$name = $row['firstname']." ".$row['lastname']; 

echo "<option value=\"$username\">$name</option>"; 
} 
?> 
</select> 
<input type="submit" value="Submit" name="submit" /> 
</form>

It goes into a page that looks like this:

 <?php
$userid = $_POST['username'];
?>

<?php
$con = mysql_connect("1234","1234","1234");
if (!$con)
  {
  die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
  }

mysql_select_db('1234', '$con');

$result = mysql_query("SELECT firstname FROM authorize
WHERE username='$userid'");

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
  {
  echo $row['firstname'];
  }

?>

It shows the userid when you echo it, but when you use it in the mysql statement it completely bombs out the entire page. What is wrong?

[nabil_kadimi]

$result = mysql_query("SELECT firstname FROM authorize
WHERE username='$userid'
LIMIT 1
");

...

while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{
echo $row['firstname'];
}

[wickedneat]

Still showing a blank page after making the changes above.

[spikeZ]

Do you remember from the last thread about doing debugging through the script?

$userid = $_POST['username'];

// debug variable, does it show?
echo $userid;

$sql = "SELECT firstname FROM authorize 
WHERE username='$userid'";

echo $sql; // does it look right?

$result = mysql_query($sql) or die(mysql_error()); 

[wickedneat]

the problem was here

mysql_select_db('1234', '$con'); 

it should have been

mysql_select_db('1234', $con); 

[spikeZ]