Simple PHP Help - Emptying table

[Ragnarak]

I'm working on something at the minute but I need it to let people empty the database table without having any access to phpmyadmin or anything. I was thinking something along the lines of the following in a emptytable.php file should work but it doesn't seem to.

PHP Code:

<?php
    $usr = "username";
    $pwd = "password";
    $db = "database_name";
    $host = "localhost";

    # connect to database
    $cid = mysql_connect($host,$usr,$pwd);
    mysql_select_db($db);
    if (mysql_error()) { print "Database ERROR: " . mysql_error(); }


{

    # setup SQL statement
    $sql = 'TRUNCATE TABLE `tablename`';

    # execute SQL statement
    $rs = mysql_query($sql, $cid);
    if (mysql_error()) { print "Database Error: $sql " . mysql_error(); }

print "Table Emptied";

}


?>

This doesn't seem to actually do anything and even if it did I don't know how secure it'd be so I was hoping someone could help out.

Thanks.

[Dante Hicks]

I haven't got PHP installed on this machine, but does the latter part in curly brackets actually get executed? i.e. the # Setup SQL Statement stuff.

You've got if....{ } and then nothing else...? I'm probably missing something though.

Who will have access to this script? And what sort of table is it? Best to have the "empty database" stuff in a function which you can then call when certain conditions are met (e.g. they have permission to run it, the table isn't already empty, etc)

[Ragnarak]

I think it should work, the print "Tale Emptied" is displayed so the {'s are being executed.
The IF statement is just to print an error message if the database info is incorrect.

What I have is a page that people can use to input data into a mysql table and this part is meant to be just the "reset" page to wipe the table empty but it doesn't seem to be working as I thought it would.

The pages will be protected by a .htaccess file and password which'll do the job even though I could probably do it a lot more elegantly if need be.

[wu_trax]

whats the reason for those extra {'s? i seee nothing else wrog with the script (given that your DB-user has the necessary rights to execute that statement).

[Ragnarak]

Originally Posted by wu_trax

whats the reason for those extra {'s? i seee nothing else wrog with the script (given that your DB-user has the necessary rights to execute that statement).

They were remnants from something else that got altered. I removed them and now it works fine. Thanks

[Remy]

$sql = 'TRUNCATE TABLE `tablename`';
use: delete * from tablename

[MrLobster]

  $database_location = 'localhost'; 
  $database_name     = 'mydatabase';
  $database_username = 'myusername'; 
  $database_password = 'mypassword';

  $dbtables['members']   = 'table_members';
  $dbtables['news']      = 'table_news';
  $dbtables['downloads'] = 'table_downloads';

  function connectDB()
  {
    include('config.php');
	
    @ $conn = new mysqli($database_location, $database_username, $database_password,$database_name);

    if (mysqli_connect_errno())
      die( '<h1>Error: Could not connect to database, please contact the system admin</h1>');

    return $conn;
  }

  $db = connectDB(); 
  
  echo "<b>Dropping all tables </b><BR>"; 

  foreach ($dbtables as $table => $tablename)
  {
    echo "Dropping $table ";
    $query = $db->query("DROP TABLE $tablename"); // Delete all tables in the database
    echo "- table dropped successfully.<br>";
  }

  echo "<b>All tables have been successfully dropped.</b><p>";

this does use the mysqli.dll (notice the i) not mysql.dll you have to make sure you have it running, and it will also delete all tables that you have list in the $dbtables array, i'm sure you can modify it to empty the tables instead.