PHP mysql table for comments

Question

I am adding comments to a website and thought I would make a simple comments table as follows but it is not working. Must be a typo but I cannot find it despite going over and over it and copying it into a different file and so forth. Also for those familiar with comments are these an adequate number of fields?

$maketable = "CREATE TABLE comments(id INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, 
 PRIMARY KEY(id),
 name VARCHAR(30),
 whenadded DATETIME,
 storyid INT,
 comment TEXT,
 show TINYINT(1),
 userid INT)";
mysql_query($maketable);

Answer 1

I think 'show' is a reserved word in mysql. Try 'display' or something else:

$maketable = "CREATE TABLE comments(id INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, 
 PRIMARY KEY(id),
 name VARCHAR(30),
 whenadded DATETIME,
 storyid INT,
 comment TEXT,
 display TINYINT(1),
 userid INT)";
mysql_query($maketable);

Answer 2

The credentials you are using for your database connection pooling in php should not have create/drop privileges on your database. It is better to use a "sql-tool" like phpmyadmin to do your database design.

One off the advantages are better error messages for debugging purposes?

Answer 3

have you checked mysql_error?

php.net/mysql_error

and i would move the PRIMARY KEY line to the very bottom of the sql statement.

Answer 4

$maketable ="CREATE TABLE  comments (
id INT( 10 ) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY ,
name VARCHAR( 30 ) NOT NULL,
whenadded DATETIME,
storyid INT( 10 ),
 comment TEXT,
 display INT(1),
 userid INT ( 10 )
) ENGINE = MYISAM;"
mysql_query($maketable);