test.php
<html> <body> <form method="post" action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];?>"> arg1: <input type="text" name="arg1"> <input type="submit"> </form> <?php if ($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST") { // collect value of input field $arg1 = $_POST['arg1']; if (empty($arg1)) { echo "arg1 is empty"; } else { $sql = "SELECT * FROM products WHERE category_id = $arg1 AND released = 1"; echo htmlspecialchars($sql); } } ?> </body> </html>