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MySQL database management system

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5. Using PHP to Connect to MySQL

How do I work with a MySQL database using PHP?

1.To merely display the information in your database without the use of a form to call a php script you simply create your HTML document as you would any other web page but instead of the extension of .htm or .html you need to name the file with the extension .phtml. Then within the document itself the section that you'd like to be the PHP code, you begin it with <? and end it with ?>. For instance:

<P>These are the products I sell:</P>

<TABLE BORDER="1">

<?
mysql_connect("localhost", "database_user_name", "password");
$result = mysql(mydatabase, "select * from products");
$num = mysql_numrows($result);
$i = 0;

while($i < $num) {
echo "<TR>n";
echo "<TD>n";
echo mysql_result($result,$i,"prodid");
echo "</TD>n<TD>";
echo mysql_result($result,$i,"name");
echo "</TD>n<TD>";
echo mysql_result($result,$i,"price");
echo "</TD>n";
echo "</TR>n";
$i++;}
?>
</TABLE>

Thus having the loop in the php program create a table with the products listed. NOTE your database user name and password for the database are not written in the file when it's displayed on the Internet so users viewing the source of your webpage will not see your password. [note that database_user_name and password are replaced above with your db user name and password; localhost is not replaced]

2.When using a CGI script to pull information from a form which has been submitted by a browser you must have the first line of the script have this command on it (Much like perl scripts):

#!/usr/local/bin/php

Updated: November 13, 2001

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