title: PHP - Unable to retrieve data from the database
body: <p>For some reason, the query when run through PHP will not return the results. I have tried both queries in the MySQL command line, and they work perfectly there. Here is the code (mysql_connect.php is working perfectly, to clarify).</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;?php 
  error_reporting(-1);
  // retrieve email from cookie 
  $email = $_COOKIE['email'];
  
  // connect to mysql database
  require('mysql_connect.php');
  
  // get user_id by searching for the email it corresponds to
  $id = mysqli_query($dbc,"SELECT user_id FROM users WHERE email=$email")or die('couldn\'t get id');
  
  // get data by using the user_id in $id
  $result = mysqli_query($dbc,"SELECT * FROM users WHERE user_id=$id")or die('couldn\'t get data');
  
  //test if the query failed
  if($result === FALSE) {
  die(mysql_error());
  echo("error");
  }
  
  // collect the array of results and print the ones required
  while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
  echo $row['first_name'];
  }
  ?&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>When I run the script, I get the message "could not get id", yet that query works in the MySQL command line and PHPMyAdmin.</p>