My issue I believe is fairly simple but after a whole day trying different variations I have resorted to bothering you guys, please excuse me if this has been covered but I could not find a close enough example

I have a php file that is a processing file for a simple html form

Process.php:

```
<?php
error_reporting(E_ALL); ini_set('display_errors', 1);
$host="1.2.3.4:3306"or die("wrong server");  // Host name 
$username="username"or die("wrong Username");  // Mysql username 
$password="password"or die("Wrong Password");  // Mysql password 
$db_name="db-name"or die("wrong DB");  // Database name 
$tbl_name="banned"or die("Wrong table");  // Table name 
$member = isset($_REQUEST['member']) ? $_REQUEST['member'] : "";

// Connect to server and select database.
mysql_connect("$host", "$username", "$password")or die("cannot connect"); 
mysql_select_db("$db_name")or die("cannot select DB");

$find_member = mysql_query("SELECT member FROM banned WHERE member='$member'")or 
die(mysql_error());
$ban = mysql_fetch_array($find_member);

if($member == $ban['member']){ 
echo ("this member is banned");
}
else {
echo ("<form method='post' action='http://example.com/access.php'>
<input type='text' style='display:none;' value='<?php echo
htmlspecialchars($member);?'/>'
<button type='submit'>Continue</button>");
}
?>

```

Form.html:

```
<form method="post" action="http://example.com/process.php">
<input type="text" name="member">
<input type="submit">
</form>

```

**What im trying to accomplish:**

A user would type their member number in the form.html and click submit, process.php will catch POST and either echo the text "this member is banned" or if member number is not on banned sql table, then display a html button with with a hidden input field that will carry the $member variable on to the next page

**What is actually happening**

no matter what number is entered into the form.html it always displays the html button. there is one number on the blacklist but when entered still displays the button

**Error reporting**

php and sql error reporting displays no errors

**Side note**
*DB structure*

*member VARCHAR(20) / id (auto increment) / Time (timestamp - defalt:current time stamp)*

The member number is Alphanumeric and is max 15 characters
*example: +ayw7394*

The initial error of using:

```
if($member = $ban['member']){ 

```

was replaced with:

```
if($member == $ban['member']){ 

```

but produces the opposite effect of echoing the "banned member" message regardless of which number is being inputed

It seems as though the

```
if  statements are being ignored

```

Can anyone please provide me with some advice?

thank you for your help so far