PHP: MySQL Database Query Example

This page shows you how to use php to query a MySQL database.

Prerequisite: we assume you have a database running. In the following, we'll need a server name, user name, password, and a database name.

Here's a example of executing a create table query.

<?
$server = "example.org";
$db_user = "xuser";
$db_password = "th3oceu";
$db_name = "xltest";

// connect to the server
$link = mysql_connect($server, $db_user, $db_password) or die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());

// select a db
mysql_select_db($db_name) or die('Could not select database');

// sql query string
$query = <<<ththth
CREATE TABLE user_info (
login_name VARCHAR(50) PRIMARY KEY,
password VARCHAR(17) NOT NULL,
passphrase VARCHAR(17),
user_first_name VARCHAR(20),
user_middle_name VARCHAR(20),
user_last_name VARCHAR(20),
user_email VARCHAR(40),
user_class ENUM("admin","mod","normal","guest"),
school_id INT,
login_creation_date DATE,
timestamp timestamp);
ththth;

$result = mysql_query($query) or die('Query failed: ' . mysql_error());

  mysql_close($link);