Wotcha,

The following is just my £0.02...

• have a look at this article
• consider using placeholders
• think about writing a generic function using hashes and join to write your SQL and do your SELECTs
• and finally... you had the right idea in the first place. You should be able to fetch the row even if there isn't anything in it - then, once you've got it, you can print something sensible if it's empty. Have a fiddle about with it, post the code how it was when it was kikkin' up them errors (grin) - maybe they weren't caused by the database? Or for a different reason?

Anyway, hope these vague ramblings have been some help,

andy.