problem of transmiting variabl into another page?

[Mohamed Yusuf <myainab@xxxxxxxxx>]

I am transmitting variable from one of my pages and I would like to match
that variable into mysql data. it won't return data.
my code is this.

<?php for ($j=A; $j <= Z; $j++) {
   echo "| <b><a href='alpha.php?artist=$j'>$j</a></b> |";
   if ($j == Z) {
   break;
  }
 } ?>
this code in my index page prints alphabetical letters from A-Z. and I woul
like to transmit that variable into my alpha.php page and select mysql
database what ever the value of $j is, but i have problem I can't figured
out what is wrong. can somebody help me.