[SOLVED] Help with DB Query

// why did you assume that this command is no longer required?

Because I’m an idiot.

Same with the return $output;

It works! Thank you both for all of your help and patience!
http://dev.hhiconcours.com/index.php?id=106

No nickfury, not an idiot. As for SQL noob -- it was excellent. Now please consider/learn well the both SQL query and php code for dataset normalization -- if these things appear to be clear for you, then you will be not so far from programming guru

Thanks for the encouragement! I get the concepts, but the syntax always kills me. I’ll keep plugging away.

Just want to say reading and following this thread has been very instructive for me as a MySQL noob too, so thank you all for sharing your knowledge!