Re: how to use PHP variable in MYSQL query?

[Rho Chalmers]

FIRST OF ALL: I've read this entire thread and nothing anyone has suggested has worked. I did see one thing with substituting '=' with '=='. What does '==' mean?

I have the following code that works:
=============================================
<?PHP
// Manually load User Variable
$test = 'TX';
// Query Database with hard-coded value in WHERE clause
$quer5 = mysql_query('SELECT * FROM `jobs` WHERE `state` = "TX" ORDER BY `city`');
// Get output
while($rowtest = mysql_fetch_array($quer5)) {
echo ("$rowtest[city]"."<br>");
}
?>
===============================================
This PHP 4x/MySQL (version ?) website was setup by someone else and several people have worked on it before I was called in to troubleshoot. It is a mess.
The MySQL db is utf8_unicode.ci, but all the tables are collated as latin_swedish_ci. I am running the above test and it works with the current configuration. The site is large and the client will NOT pay to have a total re-work (which we all know it needs).

The site is hosted at AT&T Web Hosting - not fun!

MY PROBLEM:
In the above test, I create and manually load a User Variable ($test). I've tested the variable and it is storing and returning the value "TX" just fine.

In the Query WHERE clause, I need to substitute "TX" with the $test variable.
I've tried single quotes, double quotes, no quotes, escape strings, everything I can think of trying.

I'm open to suggestions. What should I sub for
WHERE `state` = "TX"
to make the Query use the $test variable?