MySQL FAQs - PHP Connections and Query Execution

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A collection of 18 FAQs on connecting MySQL server with PHP scritps. Clear explanations and tutorial exercises are provided on MySQL server connection; providing port number, user account and password; selecting or creating database; running SQL statements; checking execution errors. Topics included in this collections:

How To Install PHP on Windows?
How To Check Your PHP Installation?
What Do You Need to Connect PHP to MySQL?
How To Turn on mysql Extension on the PHP Engine?
How To Connect to a MySQL Sever with Default Port Number?
How To Connect to a MySQL Sever with a Port Number?
How To Connect to MySQL Severs with User Accounts?
How To Access MySQL Servers through Firewalls?
How To Get Some Basic Information Back from MySQL Servers?
How To Close MySQL Connection Objects?
How To Get a List of Databases from MySQL Servers?
How To Create a New Database?
What Happens If You Do Not Have Privileges to Create Database?
How To Get MySQL Statement Execution Errors?
How To Drop an Existing Database?
How To Select an Exiting Database?
Can You Select Someone Else Database?
How To Run a SQL Statement?

Please note that all answers and tutorials are based on MySQL 5.0 and PHP 5.0. Sometimes you may need to run previous tutorials in order to continue a later tutorial.

Continue with the next FAQ collection on how to manage tables and selecting data rows with PHP scripts.

How To Install PHP on Windows?

The best way to download and install PHP on Windows systems is to:

Go to http://www.php.net, which is the official Web site for PHP.
Download PHP binary version for Windows in ZIP format.
Unzip the downloaded file into a directory.

You are done. No need to run any install program.

How To Check Your PHP Installation?

PHP provides two execution interfaces: Command Line Interface (CLI) and Common Gateway Interface (CGI). If PHP is installed in the \php directory on your system, you can try this to check your installation:

Run "\php\php -v" command to check the Command Line Interface (CLI).
Run "\php\php-cgi -v" command to check the Common Gateway Interface (CGI).

If you see PHP printing the version information on your screen for both commands, your installation is ok.

What Do You Need to Connect PHP to MySQL?

If you want to access MySQL database server in your PHP script, you need to make sure that a MySQL API module (extension) is installed and turned on in your PHP engine. PHP 5 now supports two MySQL API extensions:

mysql - This is the standard MySQL API extension. It does not support the improved authentication protocol used in MySQL 5.0, nor does it support prepared statements or multiple statements.
mysqli - Stands for "MySQL, Improved". This extension is available only in PHP 5. It is intended for use with MySQL 4.1.1 and later. This extension fully supports the authentication protocol used in MySQL 5.0, as well as the Prepared Statements and Multiple Statements APIs. In addition, this extension provides an advanced, object-oriented programming interface.

"mysql" API extension will be used in this tutorial collection.

How To Turn on mysql Extension on the PHP Engine?

The "mysql" API extension is provided as "php_mysql.dll" for Windows system. Your PHP binary download package should have "php_mysql.dll" included. No need for another download. But you need to check the PHP configuration file, \php\php.ini, to make sure the extension=php_mysql.dll is not commented out.

The MySQL API offers a number of functions to allow you to work with MySQL server. Some commonly used MySQL functions are:

mysql_connect -- Open a connection to a MySQL Server
mysql_get_client_info -- Get MySQL client info
mysql_get_host_info -- Get MySQL host info
mysql_get_server_info -- Get MySQL server info
mysql_close -- Close MySQL connection
mysql_list_dbs -- List databases available on a MySQL server
mysql_fetch_object -- Fetch a result row as an object
mysql_fetch_array -- Fetch a result row as an associative array, a numeric array, or both
mysql_query -- Send a MySQL query
mysql_errno -- Returns the numerical value of the error message from previous MySQL operation
mysql_error -- Returns the text of the error message from previous MySQL operation
mysql_select_db -- Select a MySQL database
mysql_num_rows -- Returns the number of rows selected in a result set object returned from SELECT statement
mysql_affected_rows -- Returns the number of rows affected by the last INSERT, UPDATE or DELETE statement
mysql_fetch_array -- Fetch a result row as an associative array, a numeric array, or both
mysql_free_result -- Free result memory
mysql_list_tables -- List tables in a MySQL database
mysql_list_fields -- List MySQL table fields

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