Why isn't my if statement working with get_the_category?

Question

Im trying to make an if statement that would echo a word for each category that the post is in, it gets the category name from the post id, but the first category is All Stories

Answer 1

You are looking for a comparison (==) instead of an assignment (=):

$category_detail=get_the_category( $post->ID )[1]->name;
echo $category_detail;
// echoes COMPANY NEWS
if($category_detail == "COMPANY NEWS") {
    echo "C_News";
} elseif ($category_detail == "SECTOR NEWS") {
    echo "S_News";
}

Your code (if ($category_detail = "COMPANY NEWS")) is always true as it is an assignment, therefore it will always echo the COMPANY NEWS branch.