php - My code does not read from mysql database

Solution:

This code will work and is a bit safer

<?php
//Connection part
$servername = "server_adress"; //It can be localhost or 127.0.0.1 or some other IP
$username = "XXXXXX"; //Username for DB
$password = "YYYYYY"; //Password for that user
$database = "ZZZZZZ"; //DB name you are connecting to

//Create a new connection
$conn_to_db = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password,$database);

// Check connection
if ($conn_to_db -> connect_error) {
    die("Connection failed: " . $conn_to_db ->connect_error);
}

//Finished connection part

$cid = mysqli_real_escape_string($conn_to_db, $_GET['cid']); //Escapes special characters in a string for use in an SQL statement

$array = array();

if($stmt = $conn_to_db -> ("SELECT * FROM questions WHERE QType = ?")) {
   $stmt -> bind_param("s", $cid);
   $stmt -> execute();
   $stmt -> bind_result($question_from_db);  //Here you can put all variables you are fetching from DB
   while($stmt -> fetch()){
     //Iterate over rows - put your code here to fetch everything you need from DB and put in array
     $array[] = array('question' => $question_from_db);
   }   
   $stmt -> close();
 }
} 

//you can iterate over rows like this
foreach($array as $key => $value) {
 echo $value['question'];
}
?>
Copy code

Couple of things to keep in mind:

• it's a good practice to avoid * (selecting everything from DB) and put only columns you need from DB
• use prepared statement which is a safer way and protects you from SQL injection
• MySQL is depreciated so try to avoid it (use mysqli or PDO)
• The code above you need to adjust to your needs! It will not work as copy/paste. Put your DB connection and select columns from DB you need and add variables which you fetch from DB
• Keep in mind there are more ways to do this, and someone will probably give another solution.
• if you are not on a production server, it's good to have some error reporting to see the errors that are happening