MySQL Show Alternate Field if Target Field is Empty

There may be times when you have empty values in some fields. If that is the case you can run conditional if and else statements on the returned data to see if there are empty values, matches, or whatever the logic needs to be. In this example we are going to display alternate data from another field if the target field has an empty value.

In the example below we have a member table that holds member information. If the website field is empty for that member, I am going to display their name field's data instead. Both fields used must be defined in the SQL command to return in the while loop.

Show alternate field if a field's value is empty:
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<?php 

// connect to your MySQL database here

require_once "connect_to_mysql.php";

// Build sql command

$sqlCommand = "SELECT id, username, website FROM members";

// Execute the query here now 

$query = mysql_query($sqlCommand) or die (mysql_error()); 

// Output the data using a while loop

$siteDisplay = "";

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)) {

    // Gather all $row values into local variables

    $uid = $row["id"]; 

    $username = $row["username"]; 

    $website = $row["website"]; 

    // Run conditional to see if the desired field is empty

    // If it is we display alternate content from another field in their row

    if (!$website) {

        $siteDisplay = "$username";

    } else {

        $siteDisplay = "$website";

    }

    

    // echo the output to browser

    echo "User ID: $uid &bull; $siteDisplay<hr />";

}

// Free the results 

mysql_free_result($query);  

// close mysql connection 

mysql_close(); 

?>

User ID: 1 • www.flashbuilding.com

User ID: 2 • www.joecool.com

User ID: 3 • Sally

User ID: 4 • www.williamawesome.com

User ID: 6 • www.webintersect.com

User ID: 5 • Tara

User ID: 7 • www.weheardyoufart.com

User ID: 8 • Adam

That concludes this section, to continue learning MySQL head back to the index

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