function get_category_name($catid)
{
   // query database for the name for a category id
   $conn = db_connect();
   $query = "select catname
             from categories 
             where catid = $catid"; 
   $result = @mysql_query($query);
   if (!$result)
     return false;
   $num_cats = @mysql_num_rows($result);
   if ($num_cats ==0)
      return false;  
   $result = mysql_result($result, 0, 'catname');
   return $result; 
}