# PHP - Left() wont show

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/php-left-wont-show/48662>\
**Category:** programming\
**Created:** [April 15, 2004, 4:47pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/php-left-wont-show/48662 "2004-04-15T16:47:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![imagined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a87d85/32.png) [@imagined](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/imagined)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2004, 4:47pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/php-left-wont-show/48662/1 "2004-04-15T16:47:26Z")

</div>

i have this PHP script

$sql = “SELECT id, active, LEFT(heading,20) FROM superintendent ORDER BY active DESC”;  
$result = mysql\_query($sql) or die(“Couldn’t get file list”);  
while($row = mysql\_fetch\_array($result))  
{  
echo ($row[“heading)”]);  
?\>

the echo wont work? any idea why or how to make it work???