PHP built-in MySQL functions. Free online PHP and MySQL Web Database Programming Tutorial...

PHP provides numerous built-in fuctions for working with MySQL database server. In this lesson we are going to introduce some of the most important of them.

mysql_connect()
The mysql_connect() function opens a connection to the MySQL database server. It needs has three parameters namely; server name, username, and password. Its syntax follows:

$connection = mysql_connect("servername","username","password");

mysql_select_db()
The mysql_select_db() function is used to select an existing database on the MySQL server for subsequent use by the PHP script. It requires two arguments; database name and a valid reference to the MySQL database server. Its syntax follows:

$db = mysql_select_db("myDB", $connection);

mysql_query()
This function is used to execute SQL commands and statements. It requires an open connection to the database. Its syntax follows:

$sql_result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM SOMETABLE", $connection);

mysql_error()
The mysql_error() function returns a meaningful error message when something goes wrong with our connection or query. Generally it is used in the context of the die() function. Its syntax follows:

$sql_result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM SOMETABLE", $connection)
or die(mysql_error());

mysql_fetch_array()
This function is used to get a record from the recordset in the form of an array. Its syntax follows:

$row = mysql_fetch_array($sql_result);

mysql_num_rows()
This function is generally used to get the number of rows in a result set. Its syntax follows:

$num = mysql_num_rows($sql_result);

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