asked on

Loop through all records or search for one specific record when checking if email exists

I seem to be confusing myself today for some reason.

The user has the ability to change their email address. When they type in a new email address I need to check the database to see if that email address exists.

Should I loop through records like this?

if($numRows > 0) {
while($row = $result->fetch_assoc())  {
if ($_POST['new_email'] == $row['user_email'])  {
echo "<div class='alert alert-danger'>Sorry, that email address is not available.</div>";
	    }
	}
}

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Or should I look for one specific record ( I think that is the difference between the two if I understand correctly)?

$result = $stmt->get_result();
if($result) {
$row = $result->fetch_assoc();
}

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Or does it not really make much difference?

SOLUTION

Mukesh Yadav

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Crazy Horse

ASKER

Sorry, I realized I am doing it again, not posting enough code.

This was the while loop method:

$new_email = filter_var($_POST['email'], FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL);
$stmt = $link->prepare("SELECT `user_email` FROM `users` WHERE `user_email` != ?");
$stmt->bind_param("s", $_SESSION['user_email']);
$stmt->execute();
$result = $stmt->get_result();
$numRows = $result->num_rows;
if($numRows > 0) {
while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {


if ($_POST['email] == $row['user_email']) {

echo "<div class='alert alert-danger'>Sorry, that email address is not available.</div>";

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Crazy Horse

ASKER

@ Mukesh Yadav,

In phpMyadmin I have the email column set to UNIQUE. Are you saying I should also set it to INDEX?

Crazy Horse

ASKER

And for some reason, this code echo's out "found a result" even if there is no match in the database.

$new_email = filter_var($_POST['email'], FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL);
$stmt = $link->prepare("SELECT `user_email` FROM `users` WHERE `user_email` = ?");
$stmt->bind_param("s", $new_email);
$stmt->execute();
$result = $stmt->get_result();
if($result) {			
echo "found a result";
}

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SOLUTION

Mukesh Yadav

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ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Ray Paseur

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