Php / MySQL update script sending empty response

What you posted seems (almost) fine. The problem would likely to be the line $searchStatus = getCharData($char, $charData); which exists in require("updatef.php");

Chances are the IP got blocked or they update the website so that your regex no longer works (im leaning towards the 2nd possibility more).

The regex is fine. I can add or remove individual members just fine using the same functions. The problem lays more with the whole script taking too long to do a batch operation, or at least, that's what I assume the problem to be. The line $searchStatus does not exist in Updatef.php, it links to the function getCharData which does.

$SearchStatus is what gathers the results for each row fetched rom MySQL, and returns as an array to be stored into the corresponding row. It's a necessary part of the loop. I cannot put the functions inside the loop either, as functions can only be declared once.

Modify your updatef.php so it prints out data without connecting to the database. I suspect the problem is there.

so should I gather the results before connecting to the database to store them? I'll look into this, but I'm not exactly sure how to store the results until they get transferred into the database.