hey thanks guys adding debugging info worked. Actually it was mysqli_error() providing me with a specific error of where the problem was. Cannot insert query:Duplicate entry '0' for key 'PRIMARY' This is the data in the table mysql> select * from guitarwars; +----+---------------------+-------------------+-------+-------------------+ | id | date | name | score | screenshot | +----+---------------------+-------------------+-------+-------------------+ | 0 | 2012-10-01 11:55:45 | Tommy Tutone | 2442 | bg_titlestrip.jpg | | 1 | 2012-10-01 08:34:18 | Dunphy | 20000 | proof.jpg | | 2 | 2012-10-01 00:25:53 | ray davies | NULL | 2241 | | 3 | 2008-04-22 14:37:34 | Paco Jastorius | NULL | NULL | | 4 | 2008-04-22 21:27:54 | Nevil Johansson | NULL | NULL | | 5 | 2008-04-23 09:12:53 | Belita Chevy | NULL | NULL | | 6 | 2008-04-23 14:09:50 | Kenny Lavitz | NULL | NULL | | 7 | 2008-04-24 08:13:52 | Phiz Lairston | NULL | NULL | | 8 | 2008-04-25 07:22:19 | Jean Paul Jones | NULL | NULL | | 9 | 2008-04-25 11:49:23 | Jacob Scorcherson | NULL | NULL | +----+---------------------+-------------------+-------+-------------------+ This was the query I was using: $query = "INSERT INTO guitarwars (date, name, score, screenshot) VALUES (NOW(), '$name', '$score', '$screenshot')"; It seems to be inserting a default value of 0 since the id is not being specified and that's when I realized that I had failed to auto_increment the id column. D'oh! So once I did that everything worked like a charm. @Ken >First -- NEVER post code with your database username/password. Since you did, change your db password immediately. Well actually I did not. Did you really think 'secretsauce' was my password? :) But I guess you're right in that this may be a little ambiguous when seeking advice in lists so from now on I will take your advice on making login information unambiguously fake in the form of user='xxxx' and password='xxx'. @Stuart But take note of what everyone else is saying. You should be getting the error message when this happens which will tell you exactly what the problem is, above and beyond "Cannot insert query" (which, btw, makes no sense at all :)). Ok well I'm using an 'insert' query so I'm not sure why you say that this makes no sense at all. :)) If you don't mind giving this n00b advice what would be a better/more accurate error message? They take away from this for me was.. don't skimp on the error messages! The one I got was so clear that fixing the problem was easy at that point. But thanks again guys.. this list has been an indispensable source source of wisdom on my journey in learning PHP. Tim Thanks again guys, Tim -- GPG me!! gpg --keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net --recv-keys F186197B
