Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. Got it fixed. Just added a couple lines of code - $sql1 = "select * from endusers where name like '$name'"; $result1 = mysql_query($sql1); $count1 = mysql_num_rows($result1); if ($count1 == "0" ) $sql = "insert into endusers......blah blah blah Now it works fine, no more duplicate entries. Just for those who asked - this is a database of end-user names and addresses for a mailing list. The questions posted are kept by the department that responded to them. No one here has ever asked or implied a need to have the messages saved to the database, what they do with the message is their game, not mine. I'm just cleaning up their existing code a bit. -- Chip Miles Thompson <milesthompson@ns.sympatico.ca> wrote on 06/04/2003 08:31:14 AM: > Chip, > > Given that you have duplicate entries, then one field, or a combination of > several fields, will probably be unique. > > Before adding a record execute a SELECT, using the values from the form > against that combination. If the number of records returned is greater than > 0, then execute an UPDATE query, otherwise an INSERT. > > Now, that information is so vague to be almost useless, for it begs a > number of other questions, such as > How many questions are end users allowed to ask? > How are questions flagged for expiration or completion/solution? > What kind of mix of questions do you allow? > > Cookies only store a bit of information on the user's browser. There's > nothing magic about them - google for "netscape cookies". I don't think > they'd be much help to you here. > > HTH - Miles Thompson > > At 01:13 PM 6/4/2003 -0700, chip.wiegand@simrad.com wrote: > >I need to modify some company web pages that include a form for asking the > >company departments questions, such as service dept, etc. As the forms are > >currently built there is some field validation but no cookies. This info > >is saved in a mysql database, problem is, there are duplicate entries, > >every time an end-user posts a question. What kind of code do I need to > >add to these existing pages to prevent duplicate entries in the database? > >(Manually scanning through and deleting dupes is a real drag.) And what > >about cookies? Could I make use of these on these pages? I haven't worked > >with cookies yet, so am not sure where to start with that part. > >Thanks, > >-- > >Chip > > > >-- > >PHP Database Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) > >To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php > > > -- > PHP Database Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) > To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php > > -- PHP Database Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php