[php] mysqli_fetch_assoc() expects parameter 1 to be mysqli_result, boolean given

I am pretty new to PHP and MySQL and I just can't figure this one out. I have searched all around the forum but haven't found an answer I can make sense of. I originally was using mysql_fetch_assoc() but I could only search numbers and I received errors when searching for letters as well. I hope I am on the right track here. Thank you in advance for all your help!

$con = mysqli_connect($hostname,$username,$password) or die ("<script language='javascript'>alert('Unable to connect to database')</script>");
mysqli_select_db($con, $dbname);

if (isset($_GET['part'])){
    $partid = $_GET['part'];
    $sql = 'SELECT * 
        FROM $usertable 
        WHERE PartNumber = $partid';

    $result = mysqli_query($con, $sql);
    $row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result);

    $partnumber = $partid;
    $nsn = $row["NSN"];
    $description = $row["Description"];
    $quantity = $row["Quantity"];
    $condition = $row["Conditio"];
}

What happens in your code if $usertable is not a valid table or doesn't include a column PartNumber or part is not a number.

You must escape $partid and also read the document for mysql_fetch_assoc() because it can return a boolean

Mysqli makes use of object oriented programming. Try using this approach instead:

function dbCon() {
        if($mysqli = new mysqli('$hostname','$username','$password','$databasename')) return $mysqli; else return false;
}

if(!dbCon())
exit("<script language='javascript'>alert('Unable to connect to database')</script>");
else $con=dbCon();

if (isset($_GET['part'])){
    $partid = $_GET['part'];
    $sql = "SELECT * 
        FROM $usertable 
        WHERE PartNumber = $partid";

    $result=$con->query($sql_query);
    $row = $result->fetch_assoc();

    $partnumber = $partid;
    $nsn = $row["NSN"];
    $description = $row["Description"];
    $quantity = $row["Quantity"];
    $condition = $row["Conditio"];
}

Let me know if you have any questions, I could not test this code so you might need to tripple check it!

mysqli_fetch_assoc() expects parameter 1 to be mysqli_result, boolean given

This means that the first parameter you passed is a boolean (true or false).

The first parameter is $result, and it is false because there is a syntax error in the query.

" ... WHERE PartNumber = $partid';"

You should never directly include a request variable in a SQL query, else the users are able to inject SQL in your queries. (See SQL injection.)

You should escape the variable:

" ... WHERE PartNumber = '" . mysqli_escape_string($conn,$partid) . "';"

Or better, use Prepared Statements.

You are single quoting your SQL statement which is making the variables text instead of variables.

$sql = "SELECT * 
    FROM $usertable 
    WHERE PartNumber = $partid";