php - Selecting Query Based on $_POST action to display while loop

last question in here for a week! I need to take a break from this stuff. I'm trying to run a query to extract user data to be used in a while loop. The first query is the default query which would run (or is suppose to run) regardless of $_POST. The second query runs only when ViewAllFriends button is submitted. Here is what I have in form:

                

                    


                            
Friends of: " . $profile_user_obj->getFirstAndLastName() . "
"; ?>

                        global $con;
                $username = $_GET['profile_username'];

                //Default query limits results to 5
                $query = mysqli_query($con,"SELECT * FROM users WHERE friend_array LIKE '$username,%' OR friend_array LIKE '%,$username,%' OR friend_array LIKE '%,$username' LIMIT 0,5");  

                //Query to run if button ViewAllFriends submitted

                if(isset($_POST['ViewAllFriends'])) {
                    $query = mysqli_query($con,"SELECT * FROM users WHERE friend_array LIKE '$username,%' OR friend_array LIKE '%,$username,%' OR friend_array LIKE '%,$username'");            

        ?>
                        

                          

                            

                                    while ($row = mysqli_fetch_array($query)) {
                    $friends = $row['profile_pic']; 

                    $friend_username = $row['username'];
                ?>
                              

                            
                            

                            
                          
                        
     
                    

                


            

Right now the first query does not run, IOW no profile pics are displayed. However when I submit the View All Friends button, all of the profile pics display. I'm not sure how to evaluate the first query to run as default? I tried the following:

if(empty($_POST[ViewAllFriends])){...}

but this would make the second query an else statement which is not correct logic since it is dependent on a user action.

Any help on this would be really appreciated. Thankyou!

Answer

global $con;
$username = $_GET['profile_username'];

if(isset($_POST['ViewAllFriends'])) {
    //Query to run if button ViewAllFriends submitted
    $query = mysqli_query($con,"SELECT * FROM users WHERE friend_array LIKE '$username,%' OR friend_array LIKE '%,$username,%' OR friend_array LIKE '%,$username'"); 
} else {
    //Default query limits results to 5

    $query = mysqli_query($con,"SELECT * FROM users WHERE friend_array LIKE '$username,%' OR friend_array LIKE '%,$username,%' OR friend_array LIKE '%,$username' LIMIT 0,5"); 
}

And now remove the extra bracket in:

To:

After the thumbnails.

If it works consider changing the code to use prepared statements instead of writing variable values inside sql queries to prevent from SQL injection attacks.