no update made and no table created

I don't understand why no updating is taking effect and no table is created:

include("../files/constants.php");
include("../files/dbconnection.php");
if (!$con)
  {
  die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
  }

mysql_select_db($acronym."_book", $con);
$sql = "SELECT * FROM ".$acronym."_pages WHERE content LIKE '%nbsp%'";
$result = mysql_query($sql) OR exit( 'Error: ' . mysql_error() );
    //echo $sql;
	//to keep record of what changes are made I decided to create a table
	$sql_record = "CREATE TABLE ".$acronym."_correction_nbsp
	(
	cor_ID int(6) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
	PRIMARY KEY(cor_ID),
	content_before longtext,
	content_after longtext
	)";
    while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)){
		$new = preg_replace('#&?nbsp;?#i', ' ', $row['content']);
		if($row['content'] != ""){
		$sql_record2 = "INSERT INTO correction_nbsp (content_before, content_after)
		VALUES (".$row['content'].", ".$new.")";
		echo $sql_record2."<br />\n";
		}        
		$sql2 = "UPDATE ".$acronym."_pages SET content = '".$new."' WHERE content = '".$row['content']."'";
		echo $sql2."<br />\n";
    }
mysql_close($con); 

PHP:

If you want to simply view the statements here are a few examples:

INSERT INTO correction_nbsp (content_before, content_after) VALUES ( CHAPTER 1  ,  CHAPTER 1  )
UPDATE bwas_pages SET content = ' CHAPTER 1  ' WHERE content = ' CHAPTER 1  '
INSERT INTO correction_nbsp (content_before, content_after) VALUES ( , )
UPDATE bwas_pages SET content = ' ' WHERE content = ' '
INSERT INTO correction_nbsp (content_before, content_after) VALUES ( , )
UPDATE bwas_pages SET content = ' ' WHERE content = ' '
INSERT INTO correction_nbsp (content_before, content_after) VALUES (chapter: , chapter: )
UPDATE bwas_pages SET content = 'chapter: ' WHERE content = 'chapter: '
INSERT INTO correction_nbsp (content_before, content_after) VALUES (copies  &nbspfrom  &nbspauthoritative  &nbspsources  &nbspshowing  &nbspthe , copies from authoritative sources showing the )

Code (markup):

 

If that's all the code, then you don't execute some of the queries, for instance, you just assign the SQL string to the $sql_record, that's why it never creates the table.

You should use mysql_query($sql_record); if you want the table to be created.

Also, you don't lack to put the values inside quotes in the INSERT statement.

 

Well the entire coding is this:

<?php 
include("../files/constants.php");
include("../files/dbconnection.php");
if (!$con)
  {
  die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
  }

mysql_select_db($acronym."_book", $con);
$sql = "SELECT * FROM ".$acronym."_pages WHERE content LIKE '%nbsp%'";
$result = mysql_query($sql) OR exit( 'Error: ' . mysql_error() );
    //echo $sql;
	
$constructed = array();
$sQry = "SHOW TABLES FROM ".$acronym."_book";
$qry = mysql_query($sQry) or die(mysql_error());
while ($tables = mysql_fetch_row($qry))
{
    $constructed[] = $tables[0];
}

if (!in_array("correction_nbsp", $constructed))
{
	//to keep record of what changes are made I decided to create a table
		$sql_record = "CREATE TABLE correction_nbsp
		(
		cor_ID int(6) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
		PRIMARY KEY(cor_ID),
		".$acronym."_pages_id int(6),
		content_before LONGBLOB,
		content_after LONGBLOB
		)";
		mysql_query($sql_record,$con) or die(mysql_error());
}	
	

	
	
	echo "<span style='font-weight: bold;'>".$sql_record."</span><br />\n";
    while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)){
		$old = preg_replace('#&?nbsp;?#i', ' ', $row['content']);
		$new .= preg_replace("/[^ -þ]/", "", $old);
		//if($row['content'] != ""){
			//echo $new."<br />\n";
			$sql_record2 = "INSERT INTO correction_nbsp (".$acronym."_pages_id, content_before, content_after)
			VALUES (".$row['id'].", '".$row['content']."', '".$new."')";
			mysql_query($sql_record2,$con) or die(mysql_error());
			echo $sql_record2."<br />\n";
		//}
		//$sql2 = "UPDATE ".$acronym."_pages SET content = '".preg_replace('/&?nbsp;?/', ' ', $row['content'])."' WHERE id = {$row['id']} LIMIT 1"; 
		//$sql2 = "UPDATE ".$acronym."_pages SET content = '".$new."' WHERE content = '".$row['content']."'";
		//mysql_query($sql2,$con) or die(mysql_error());
		//echo $sql2."<br />\n";
    }
mysql_close($con);

PHP:

That was only within the while loop.