I get “undefined variable” error on my code after an apache (xampp) reinstall

Question

This weekend I formatted and reinstalled my computer: today when I try to continue working on some php pages I've been programming last weeks, when I execute the php code on the localhost server I get an:

"Notice: Undefined variable: consulta in D:\\WEBS\\WP\\lbodas.php on line 42 1 de enero de 1970"

It's happening on all the php pages that perform an SQL query (wich worked perfectly before the reinstall).

I must be missing some configuration tweak (on php.ini, httpd.conf or some other apache configuration file), can somebody point me out what I'm missing?

Thanks in advance

---

Here is the code I'm using. To conect to the DDBB:

$bd_host='localhost';
$bd_login='MYLOGIN';  
$bd_clave='MYPASSWORD';
$bd_nombre='MYDATABASE';

connecttodb($bd_host,$bd_nombre,$bd_login,$bd_clave);
function connecttodb($bd_host,$bd_nombre,$dbuser,$bd_clave)
{
    global $conn;
    $conn=mysql_connect ("$bd_host","$dbuser","$bd_clave");
    mysql_query("SET NAMES 'utf8'");
    if(!$conn){die("CONNECTION ERROR");}
    //mysql_query("SET NAMES 'utf8'");

    mysql_select_db("$bd_nombre",$conn) or die ("CONNECTION ERROR".mysql_error());
}

And one of the sql queries that used to work but after the reinstall doesn't work:

        $sql = "SELECT * FROM cat_prov ORDER BY categoria ASC";
        $rs_result = mysql_query ($sql, $conn);

        while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($rs_result)) {
            $categoria=$row["categoria"];
            $notas=$row["notas"];
        }        

It's saying that the $row variable, wich holds the array with the results of the sql query, hasn't been defined... but two days ago, before the server OS reinstall I didn't have to define variables!!

Answer 1

Your new installation has error reporting set to E_ALL which is also displaying notices. Try

// Report all errors except E_NOTICE
// This is the default value set in php.ini
error_reporting(E_ALL ^ E_NOTICE);

Source: PHP Manual

Answer 2

You're probably doing something like

$result = $consulta + 1;

without ever having assigned a value to $consulta before this. Anytime you use a variable in a "read" context, without having first assigned it, newer versions of PHP will throw that warning.

Doing

$consult = 0;
$result = $consulta + 1;

will solve the problem, becase you've defined a value for the variable BEFORE it was used in a read context.