some explanation please

[bibiki]

while($row = mysql_fetch_object($result))
   {
   ?>
      <li><font size="-1"><b>
<a href="story.php?id=<? echo $row->id; ?>"><? echo $row->slug; ?></a>
 
</b></font>
      <br>
      <font size="-2"><? echo formatDate($row->timestamp); ?></font>

Refering to the above, I am finding it difficult to understand the '?id=' part inside the href attribute. I would greatly appreciate it if somebode explains it to me.

in addition:
the following is part of the 'story.php' script that is linked to in the above code:
$id = mysql_escape_string($_GET['id']);

How is this $GET['id] working when there is no action="story.php" defined in the first page whatsoever?
Or, is it maybe that my failure to understand the "mysql_escape_string( )" function causing all this ambiguity in my mind? Please help.

[Atli]

Hey.

The $_GET array gets it's data directly from the request URL.

So in a page with the URL: www.example.com?name=joe
The code "echo $_GET['name'];" would print "joe".

You don't need to actually submit a form. All that is required is that the data is correctly inserted into the URL.

[bibiki]

thanks Atli. I think that makes sense to me. I needed a confirmation of what I was already suspecting to be the case and you did offer the confirmation for me. I guess for now I should just look at the question mark in the href attribute as a short version of setting up a form, defining an action script, and determening the method (the $get versus $post)... which I guess is always a $_get...
That does i for me just fine. thank you again.
P.S.
ACTUALLY: Now i see my mistakes in what i wrote above... but anyways, a good lesson learned today.