How do I get the username for profiles?

Its a very basic question that seems very difficult for me to figure out, how do I get the usernames pulled in custom.php for profiles.

This is the last piece of the configuration I have to fix.

The problem is $iden is improperly set in the config.

If I comment out $iden it works perfectly returning the userid. The problem is, my database has set up profiles based on username not userid. So I need $iden to work.

Basically I need the href to link to to link to $r_path.$iden not to " . $r_path . "showProfile.php?id=" . $id . " which is the default.

My databases are setup perfectly.

I have tried calling $res['usr_name']; but that seems to only return the current logged in user and makes every profile link, a link to the logged in users profile.

I am at a complete loss as to what to even look for.