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Connecting to MySQL using PHP

You can access MySQL databases directly through PHP scripts. This lets you read and write data to your database directly from your website.

  1. Connect to your MySQL server using the mysqli_connect statement. For example: 
    $con = mysqli_connect('HOSTNAME','USERNAME','PASSWORD');

    For help with your mysqli_connect information, see Find your database hostname.

  2. Select the database that you want to access using mysqli_select_db. For example: 
    mysqli_select_db('DATABASENAME', $con)

    Where 'DATABASENAME' is the name of your database — this also displays on your database's details page.

After establishing the connection and selecting the database, you can query it using PHP.

To help you create your own connection string, we've included an example below.

Example PHP MySQL connection string

This connect string will look in a database (your_dbusername, find a particular table (your_tablename), and then list all values in that table for a field (i.e. column) you specify (your_field).

<?php
	//Sample Database Connection Syntax for PHP and MySQL.
	
	//Connect To Database
	
	$hostname="your_hostname";
	$username="your_dbusername";
	$password="your_dbpassword";
	$dbname="your_dbusername";
	$usertable="your_tablename";
	$yourfield = "your_field";
	
	mysqli_connect($hostname,$username, $password) or die ("<html><script language='JavaScript'>alert('Unable to connect to database! Please try again later.'),history.go(-1)</script></html>");
	mysqli_select_db($dbname);
	
	# Check If Record Exists
	
	$query = "SELECT * FROM $usertable";
	
	$result = mysqli_query($query);
	
	if($result){
		while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result)){
			$name = $row["$yourfield"];
			echo "Name: ".$name."<br/>";
		}
	}
?>

For more information, see the MySQL Functions page at php.net.