Hello, I am a coding newbie. I am trying to do prepared statements on a website and am creating code for a page where a user can make posts. And this one is driving me crazy, because I can't insert into a table!

First I connect to my database, with this file, connect.inc.php:

$connect = mysqli_connect('localhost', 'admin', '', 'social_net')
  or die('Could not connect to database: ' . mysqli_error());

The form that receives the user post is sending it correctly to a page called add_post.php.

[size=3]<?php

session_start();
// has function for sanitzing data
include 'includes/functions.inc.php';
// needed to connect to DB
include 'includes/connect.inc.php';
// user ID needed to be passed for query - converted to integer for convience
$id = intval($_SESSION['id']);

if (isset($_POST['make_post'])) {
 $body = $_POST['user_post'];
 $body = sanitize_data($body);
 $date_added = date('d-M-Y g:H a');
 
 $stmt = $connect->prepare("SELECT `first_name`, `last_name`
 FROM `users` WHERE `id` = ?");
 $stmt->bind_param('i', $id);
 $stmt->execute();
 $stmt->store_result();
 $stmt->bind_result($col1, $col2);
 
 while ($stmt->fetch()) {
  $first_name = $col1;
  $last_name = $col2;
 }
 $stmt->close();
 
 $added_by = $first_name . ' ' . $last_name;
 $posted_to = $first_name . '\'s page';
}
 echo $body . '<br>';
 echo gettype($body) . '<br>';
 echo $date_added . '<br>';
 echo gettype($date_added) . '<br>';
 echo $added_by . '<br>';
 echo gettype($added_by) . '<br>';
 echo $posted_to . '<br>';
 echo gettype($posted_to) . '<br>';
 echo $id . '<br>';
 echo gettype($id) . '<br>';
 
 $stmt2 = $connect->prepare("INSERT INTO `posts` (`body`, `date_added`,
 `added_by`, `posted_to`, `user_id`) VALUES(?, ?, ?, ?, ?)");
 $stmt2->bind_param('ssssi', $body, $date_added, $added_by, $posted_to, $id);
 $stmt2->execute();
 $stmt2->close();[/size]

The prepared statement I used is virtually identical to one that successfully inserts users into a users table. What is wrong with my query?

I have tried var_dump() and got the answer that nothing is being posted. I tried adding an error checker, and no error is being echoed. Any help is greatly appreciated.