A little bit of help needed

[Cainnech]

Hello guys,

I'm a real newbie so sorry that I may ask stupid questions but I'm stuck:

<%
Dim con,sql_update,name,form_id,data_source
form_id = CInt(Request.Form("id"))
data_source =  "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; Data Source=" & _ Server.MapPath("employees.mdb")
 
 
name = "Select Name From users where id = " & form_id 
 
If _
 name == "John" _ 
Then _
   sql_update = "Update users Set status = 'True' where id = " & form_id _
Else _
   sql_update = "Update users Set status = 'False' where id = " & form_id _
End If
 
 
 
 Set con = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
 con.Open data_source
 con.Execute sql_update
 con.Close
 Set con = Nothing
Response.Redirect "showall.asp" 
 
%>
 

I've been deducting this from other code and I was quite proud of myself for writing this what to my opinion should work. But unfortunately it doesn't :-)
I get the "Page cannot be displayed"-page.

If anyone could help me to clarify for me what I'm doing wrong here, that would be very nice.

Greets,
Cainnech

[CroCrew]

Line 24: Response.Redirect "showall.asp"

Seems the logical starting place to look. Do you have a page called “showall.asp” sitting in the same folder as the one that you post the code from?

Regards,
CroCrew~

[Cainnech]

Yes it does.

And that code works since I already use it on another page where I can delete records.

[jhardman]

if name == "John" ... in asp you do not use double = signs, just one. Also, the line continuation marks are unnecessary, and incorrect if you are using an "end if" statement:

If name = "John" Then
   sql_update = "Update users Set status = 'True' where id = " & form_id
Else
   sql_update = "Update users Set status = 'False' where id = " & form_id
End If

Make sure your friendly error messages are off, then sometimes you need to force the actual error message to show up (instead of the "page can not be displayed" message). One fast way to force the asp error message to show up is to substitute the text of the page with a simple "hello world" message that couldn't possibly contain an error. After you see the correct page, put the code back and hit refresh, this should show the asp error message.

Let me know if this helps.

Jared

[Cainnech]

@jhardman
This did the trick.

I'll probably run into syntax-translation errors a lot more since I'm only used to program in Javascript.

But thanks a lot Jared!

[Cainnech]

I thought my problem was solved but not completely.

Although it now changes the value to false even if my statement is true.
I've looked into it and it seems that the value for "name" is completely off.

name = "Select Name From users where id = " & form_id  
 
If name = "John"  Then  
   sql_update = "Update users Set status = 'True' where id = " & form_id  
 

this is what it says now.
Unfortunately, the value of name now is : Select Name From users where id = 8

Now I didn't open my database yet so he won't do it correctly s he has nowhere to look so I have to open my database and perform a sql lookup first.

My problem now is that I don't know how to lookup a value in a database using SQL and store it into a variable.

So basically what I want to do is;
- lookup a value at a specified place in the database and store it in a variable (name in this case)
- compare it to a predefined variable (John in this case)
- update a different cell within the same id (status in this case)

Help would be appreciated.

[jhardman]

when you say

name = "SELECT ..."

you are just assigning a string variable. What you want is to execute a sql command and store the result in the variable. Does this make sense? Your original code shows how to execute a sql command (one of the last lines in the original code you posted). Unfortunately, I can't remember ever trying to look up a single value from a db using classic ASP. It seems like it should go something like this:

name = con.execute ("SELECT ...")

Let me know if this works, otherwise I might be able to suggest something else.

Jared