How to put mysql inside a php function?

Question

I have problem about putting mysql into a function showMsg(). The mysql is working fine if it is not wrapped by function showMsg(), but when I wrap it with function showMsg(

Answer 1

As everyone mentioned, the issue has to do with variable scoping. Instead of add global $connection; you could consider a more OOP approach and consider:

A: passing the $connection variable into the function.

B: placing related functions in a class and pass the DB connection into the Class constructor. for example:

class YourClass  {

   private $connection;

   public function __construct($connection) {
       $this->connection = $connection;
   }

   public function showMsg(){   
        $query2 = "SELECT id, message, username, datetime FROM messageslive ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT 20";
        $result2 = mysql_query($query2,$this->connection) or die (mysql_error());
        confirm_query($result2);
        $num = mysql_num_rows($result2); 
        while($msginfo = mysql_fetch_array($result2)){
            echo $msginfo['message'];
            echo $msginfo['username'];
        }
   }

}

I don't have enough rep to comment. But I also like OZ_'s answer :)