PHP If / Else statement not working in While loop

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I've been working on this bit of code
for about an hour and can't seem to figure out why it's not working. Does PHP allow
If/Else statements within While loops? I've tried adding different echos to both If/Else
statements and the latter (Else) will not show. Is this because I'm trying to use the
same variable names?

while($row =
            mysql_fetch_array($result))

{


//assign
            variables
$title = $row['title'];
$file_url =
            $row['file_location'];
$category = $row['category'];
$layout =
            $row['layout'];


 If ($layout = "vertical") 

            {

 //Page Layout
 $BODYLAYOUT =
            "vertical_body";
 $GAMECONTAIN = "vertical_gameContain";
 $GAMEWIDTH
            = "vertical_game";
 }
 Else
 {
 // Page
            Layout
 $BODYLAYOUT = "horizontal_body";
 $GAMECONTAIN =
            "horizontal_gameContain";

 $GAMEWIDTH =
            "horizontal_game";
 }

Answer

if ($layout = "vertical")
            

should
be:

if ($layout == "vertical")
            

Otherwise
you are assinging a value to $layout of 'vertical' opposed to comparing it's value to
see if it's equal to 'vertical'. That assignment will otherwise equal to true, reason
the first part runs and the ELSE does not.

One
method I use to prevent accidents like this is to put the constant first such
as:

if ("vertical" == $layout)
            

That way if I miss
the other = sign PHP will error, rather than assign the value
erroneously.