PHP MySQL Introduction

MySQL is the most popular open source database server.

What is MySQL?

MySQL is a database. A database defines a structure for storing information.

In a database, there are tables. Just like HTML tables, database tables contain rows, columns, and cells.

Databases are useful when storing information categorically. A company may have a database with the following tables: "Employees", "Products", "Customers" and "Orders".

Database Tables

A database most often contains one or more tables. Each table has a name (e.g. "Customers" or "Orders"). Each table contains records (rows) with data.

Below is an example of a table called "Persons":

The table above contains three records (one for each person) and four columns (LastName, FirstName, Address, and City).

Queries

A query is a question or a request.

With MySQL, we can query a database for specific information and have a recordset returned.

Look at the following query:

SELECT LastName FROM Persons

The query above selects all the data in the LastName column in the Persons table, and will return a recordset like this:

Download MySQL Database

If you don't have a PHP server with a MySQL Database, you can download MySQL for free here: http://www.mysql.com/downloads/index.html

Facts About MySQL Database

One great thing about MySQL is that it can be scaled down to support embedded database applications. Perhaps it is because of this reputation that many people believe that MySQL can only handle small to medium-sized systems.

The truth is that MySQL is the de-facto standard database for web sites that support huge volumes of both data and end users (like Friendster, Yahoo, Google). Look at http://www.mysql.com/customers/ for an overview of companies that use MySQL.

PHP MySQL Connect to a Database

The free MySQL Database is very often used with PHP.

Connecting to a MySQL Database

Before you can access and work with data in a database, you must create a connection to the database.

In PHP, this is done with the mysql_connect() function.

Syntax

mysql_connect(servername,username,password);

Note: There are more available parameters, but the ones listed above are the most important. Visit our full PHP MySQL Reference for more details.

Example

In the following example we store the connection in a variable ($con) for later use in the script. The "die" part will be executed if the connection fails:

<?php

					$con = mysql_connect("localhost","peter","abc123");

					if (!$con)

					  {

					  die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());

					  }

// some code

?>

Closing a Connection

The connection will be closed as soon as the script ends. To close the connection before, use the mysql_close() function.

<?php

	$con = mysql_connect("localhost","peter","abc123");

	if (!$con)

	  {

	  die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());

	  }

// some code

mysql_close($con);

	?>

PHP MySQL Create Database and Tables

A database holds one or multiple tables.

Create a Database

The CREATE DATABASE statement is used to create a database in MySQL.

Syntax

CREATE DATABASE database_name

Example

In the following example we create a database called "my_db":

<?php

					$con = mysql_connect("localhost","peter","abc123");

					if (!$con)

					  {

					  die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());

					  }

if (mysql_query("CREATE DATABASE my_db",$con))

					  {

					  echo "Database created";

					  }

					else

					  {

					  echo "Error creating database: " . mysql_error();

					  }

mysql_close($con);

					?>

Create a Table

The CREATE TABLE statement is used to create a database table in MySQL.

Syntax

CREATE TABLE table_name

						(

					column_name1 data_type,

						column_name2 data_type,

						column_name3 data_type,

						.......

					)

We must add the CREATE TABLE statement to the mysql_query() function to execute the command.

Example

The following example shows how you can create a table named "person", with three columns. The column names will be "FirstName", "LastName" and "Age":

<?php

					$con = mysql_connect("localhost","peter","abc123");

					if (!$con)

					  {

					  die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());

					  }

// Create database

					if (mysql_query("CREATE DATABASE my_db",$con))

					  {

					  echo "Database created";

					  }

					else

					  {

					  echo "Error creating database: " . mysql_error();

					  }

// Create table in my_db database

					mysql_select_db("my_db", $con);

					$sql = "CREATE TABLE person 

					(

					FirstName varchar(15),

					LastName varchar(15),

					Age int

					)";

					mysql_query($sql,$con);

mysql_close($con);

					?>

Important: A database must be selected before a table can be created. The database is selected with the mysql_select_db() function.

Note: When you create a database field of type varchar, you must specify the maximum length of the field, e.g. varchar(15).

MySQL Data Types

Below is the different MySQL data types that can be used:

Primary Keys and Auto Increment Fields

Each table should have a primary key field.

A primary key is used to uniquely identify the rows in a table. Each primary key value must be unique within the table. Furthermore, the primary key field cannot be null because the database engine requires a value to locate the record.

The primary key field is always indexed. There is no exception to this rule! You must index the primary key field so the database engine can quickly locate rows based on the key's value.

The following example sets the personID field as the primary key field. The primary key field is often an ID number, and is often used with the AUTO_INCREMENT setting. AUTO_INCREMENT automatically increases the value of the field by 1 each time a new record is added. To ensure that the primary key field cannot be null, we must add the NOT NULL setting to the field.

Example

$sql = "CREATE TABLE person 

					(

					personID int NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, 

					PRIMARY KEY(personID),

					FirstName varchar(15),

					LastName varchar(15),

					Age int

					)";

mysql_query($sql,$con);

PHP MySQL Insert Into

The INSERT INTO statement is used to insert new records into a database table.

Insert Data Into a Database Table

The INSERT INTO statement is used to add new records to a database table.

Syntax

INSERT INTO table_name

						VALUES (value1, value2,....)

You can also specify the columns where you want to insert the data:

INSERT INTO table_name (column1, column2,...)

					VALUES (value1, value2,....)

To get PHP to execute the statements above we must use the mysql_query() function. This function is used to send a query or command to a MySQL connection.

Example

In the previous chapter we created a table named "Person", with three columns; "Firstname", "Lastname" and "Age". We will use the same table in this example. The following example adds two new records to the "Person" table:

<?php

					$con = mysql_connect("localhost","peter","abc123");

					if (!$con)

					  {

					  die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());

					  }

mysql_select_db("my_db", $con);

mysql_query("INSERT INTO person (FirstName, LastName, Age) 

					VALUES ('Peter', 'Griffin', '35')");

mysql_query("INSERT INTO person (FirstName, LastName, Age) 

					VALUES ('Glenn', 'Quagmire', '33')");

mysql_close($con);

					?>

Insert Data From a Form Into a Database

Now we will create an HTML form that can be used to add new records to the "Person" table.

Here is the HTML form:

					Firstname: 

					Lastname: 

					Age: 

					

					

When a user clicks the submit button in the HTML form in the example above, the form data is sent to "insert.php". The "insert.php" file connects to a database, and retrieves the values from the form with the PHP $_POST variables. Then, the mysql_query() function executes the INSERT INTO statement, and a new record will be added to the database table.

Below is the code in the "insert.php" page:

<?php

					$con = mysql_connect("localhost","peter","abc123");

					if (!$con)

					  {

					  die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());

					  }

mysql_select_db("my_db", $con);

$sql="INSERT INTO person (FirstName, LastName, Age)

					VALUES

					('$_POST[firstname]','$_POST[lastname]','$_POST[age]')";

if (!mysql_query($sql,$con))

					  {

					  die('Error: ' . mysql_error());

					  }

					echo "1 record added";

mysql_close($con)

					?>

PHP MySQL Select

The SELECT statement is used to select data from a database.

Select Data From a Database Table

The SELECT statement is used to select data from a database.

Syntax

SELECT column_name(s)

					FROM table_name

Note: SQL statements are not case sensitive. SELECT is the same as select.

To get PHP to execute the statement above we must use the mysql_query() function. This function is used to send a query or command to a MySQL connection.

Example

The following example selects all the data stored in the "Person" table (The * character selects all of the data in the table):

<?php

					$con = mysql_connect("localhost","peter","abc123");

					if (!$con)

					  {

					  die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());

					  }

mysql_select_db("my_db", $con);

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM person");

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))

					  {

					  echo $row['FirstName'] . " " . $row['LastName'];

					  echo "
";

					  }

mysql_close($con);

					?>

The example above stores the data returned by the mysql_query() function in the $result variable. Next, we use the mysql_fetch_array() function to return the first row from the recordset as an array. Each subsequent call to mysql_fetch_array() returns the next row in the recordset. The while loop loops through all the records in the recordset. To print the value of each row, we use the PHP $row variable ($row['FirstName'] and $row['LastName']).

The output of the code above will be:

Peter Griffin

					Glenn Quagmire

Display the Result in an HTML Table

The following example selects the same data as the example above, but will display the data in an HTML table:

<?php

					$con = mysql_connect("localhost","peter","abc123");

					if (!$con)

					  {

					  die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());

					  }

					

					mysql_select_db("my_db", $con);

					

					$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM person");

					

					echo "

						<</span>tr>

					

";
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))

					  {

					  echo "
";

					  echo "";

					  echo "";

					  echo "";

					  }

					echo "
Firstname
					
Lastname
					
		
				
" . $row['FirstName'] . "
" . $row['LastName'] . "
";

mysql_close($con);

					?>

The output of the code above will be:

PHP MySQL The Where Clause

To select only data that matches a specified criteria, add a WHERE clause to the SELECT statement.

The WHERE clause

To select only data that matches a specific criteria, add a WHERE clause to the SELECT statement.

Syntax

SELECT column FROM table

					WHERE column operator value

The following operators can be used with the WHERE clause:

Note: SQL statements are not case sensitive. WHERE is the same as where.

To get PHP to execute the statement above we must use the mysql_query() function. This function is used to send a query or command to a MySQL connection.

Example

The following example will select all rows from the "Person" table, where FirstName='Peter':

<?php

					$con = mysql_connect("localhost","peter","abc123");

					if (!$con)

					  {

					  die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());

					  }

					

					mysql_select_db("my_db", $con);

					

					$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM person

					WHERE FirstName='Peter'");

					

					while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))

					  {

					  echo $row['FirstName'] . " " . $row['LastName'];

					  echo "
";

					  }

					

					?>

The output of the code above will be:

Peter Griffin

PHP MySQL Order By Keyword

The ORDER BY keyword is used to sort the data in a recordset.

The ORDER BY Keyword

The ORDER BY keyword is used to sort the data in a recordset.

Syntax

SELECT column_name(s)

					FROM table_name

					ORDER BY column_name

Note: SQL statements are not case sensitive. ORDER BY is the same as order by.

Example

The following example selects all the data stored in the "Person" table, and sorts the result by the "Age" column:

<?php

					$con = mysql_connect("localhost","peter","abc123");

					if (!$con)

					  {

					  die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());

					  }

					

					mysql_select_db("my_db", $con);

					

					$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM person ORDER BY age");

					

					while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))

					  {

					  echo $row['FirstName'];

					  echo " " . $row['LastName'];

					  echo " " . $row['Age'];

					  echo "
";

					  }

mysql_close($con);

					?>

The output of the code above will be:

Glenn Quagmire 33

					Peter Griffin 35

Sort Ascending or Descending

If you use the ORDER BY keyword, the sort-order of the recordset is ascending by default (1 before 9 and "a" before "p").

Use the DESC keyword to specify a descending sort-order (9 before 1 and "p" before "a"):

SELECT column_name(s)

					FROM table_name

					ORDER BY column_name DESC

Order by Two Columns

It is possible to order by more than one column. When ordering by more than one column, the second column is only used if the values in the first column are identical:

SELECT column_name(s)

					FROM table_name

					ORDER BY column_name1, column_name2

PHP MySQL Update

The UPDATE statement is used to modify data in a database table.

Update Data In a Database

The UPDATE statement is used to modify data in a database table.

Syntax

UPDATE table_name

					SET column_name = new_value

					WHERE column_name = some_value

To get PHP to execute the statement above we must use the mysql_query() function. This function is used to send a query or command to a MySQL connection.

Example

Earlier in the tutorial we created a table named "Person". Here is how it looks:

The following example updates some data in the "Person" table:

<?php

					$con = mysql_connect("localhost","peter","abc123");

					if (!$con)

					  {

					  die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());

					  }

mysql_select_db("my_db", $con);

					

					mysql_query("UPDATE Person SET Age = '36'

					WHERE FirstName = 'Peter' AND LastName = 'Griffin'");

mysql_close($con);

					?>

After the update, the "Person" table will look like this:

PHP MySQL Delete From

The DELETE FROM statement is used to delete rows from a database table.

Delete Data In a Database

The DELETE FROM statement is used to delete records from a database table.

Syntax

DELETE FROM table_name

					WHERE column_name = some_value

To get PHP to execute the statement above we must use the mysql_query() function. This function is used to send a query or command to a MySQL connection.

Example

Earlier in the tutorial we created a table named "Person". Here is how it looks:

The following example deletes all the records in the "Person" table where LastName='Griffin':

<?php

					$con = mysql_connect("localhost","peter","abc123");

					if (!$con)

					  {

					  die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());

					  }

mysql_select_db("my_db", $con);

					

					mysql_query("DELETE FROM Person WHERE LastName='Griffin'");

mysql_close($con);

					?>

After the deletion, the table will look like this:

PHP Database ODBC

ODBC is an Application Programming Interface (API) that allows you to connect to a data source (e.g. an MS Access database).

Create an ODBC Connection

With an ODBC connection, you can connect to any database, on any computer in your network, as long as an ODBC connection is available.

Here is how to create an ODBC connection to a MS Access Database: 

1. Open the Administrative Tools icon in your Control Panel.
2. Double-click on the Data Sources (ODBC) icon inside.
3. Choose the System DSN tab.
4. Click on Add in the System DSN tab.
5. Select the Microsoft Access Driver. Click Finish.
6. In the next screen, click Select to locate the database.
7. Give the database a Data Source Name (DSN).
8. Click OK.

Note that this configuration has to be done on the computer where your web site is located. If you are running Internet Information Server (IIS) on your own computer, the instructions above will work, but if your web site is located on a remote server, you have to have physical access to that server, or ask your web host to to set up a DSN for you to use.

Connecting to an ODBC

The odbc_connect() function is used to connect to an ODBC data source. The function takes four parameters: the data source name, username, password, and an optional cursor type.

The odbc_exec() function is used to execute an SQL statement.

Example

The following example creates a connection to a DSN called northwind, with no username and no password. It then creates an SQL and executes it:

$conn=odbc_connect('northwind','','');

					$sql="SELECT * FROM customers"; 

					$rs=odbc_exec($conn,$sql);

Retrieving Records

The odbc_fetch_row() function is used to return records from the result-set. This function returns true if it is able to return rows, otherwise false.

The function takes two parameters: the ODBC result identifier and an optional row number:

odbc_fetch_row($rs)

Retrieving Fields from a Record

The odbc_result() function is used to read fields from a record. This function takes two parameters: the ODBC result identifier and a field number or name.

The code line below returns the value of the first field from the record:

$compname=odbc_result($rs,1);

The code line below returns the value of a field called "CompanyName":

$compname=odbc_result($rs,"CompanyName");

Closing an ODBC Connection

The odbc_close() function is used to close an ODBC connection.

odbc_close($conn);

An ODBC Example

The following example shows how to first create a database connection, then a result-set, and then display the data in an HTML table.

<?php

					$conn=odbc_connect('northwind','','');

					if (!$conn)

					  {exit("Connection Failed: " . $conn);}

					$sql="SELECT * FROM customers";

					$rs=odbc_exec($conn,$sql);

					if (!$rs)

					  {exit("Error in SQL");}

					echo "";

					echo "";

					echo "";

					while (odbc_fetch_row($rs))

					{

					  $compname=odbc_result($rs,"CompanyName");

					  $conname=odbc_result($rs,"ContactName");

					  echo "";

					  echo "";

					}

					odbc_close($conn);

					echo "
Companyname
Contactname
$compname
$conname
";

					?>