[RESOLVED] Connecting PHP script to SQL DB for testing

christillis

Hi there!

Hopefully only one of my few questions!

As part of my hosting package I have SQL and phpmyadmin, both of which I've become familiar with. PHP is enabled on my hosting and SQL queries are working directly...it's just getting the PHP to talk to it that's troubling me.

I have the principals of PHP/SQL via VTC Training Videos, plus plenty of reading material but before I proceed, I'm trying to get incredibly basic 'testing' PHP script to work. I'm using this from the VTC videos but it's not working and I wondered if perhaps things have changed since the release of these videos...I'm kind of guessing time has passed consider the win98 OS!

Here's the script I'm using, it's just supposed to clarify the table name:

<html>
<title> Test page </title>
<body>
<?
$db = mysql_connect("localhost");
mysql_select_db("biker4yz_klw", $db);
$query = "SELECT * FROM staff";
$result = mysql_query($query);
$table = mysql_field_table ($result, 0);
echo $table;
?>
</body>
</html>

I've contacted the webhosting and they're being less than useful.

I really look forward to any advice.

Many thanks!

Chris

jazz_snob

Check return values and then for errors on each function call:

http://us3.php.net/manual/en/function.mysql-connect.php

$host  = "localhost"; // make sure you have correct host, user and password
$db = mysql_connect($host);
if(!$db) {
    print "Failed to connect to $host: " . mysql_error();
}

Check return values and errors on mysql_select_db(), mysql_query(), etc.

NogDog

Normally your mysql_connect() requires that you additionally specify the database user and password you want to use to connect with.

Also, you probably should get in the habit of using "<?php" instead of just "<?", as the first will always work, but the latter only if the "short_open_tag" PHP configuration is enabled.

Lastly, it might be useful to ensure all errors/warnings are being displayed to help debug, plus you can add some additional error checking:

<?php
// enable all error reporting:
ini_set('display_errors', 1);
error_reporting(E_ALL);

$db = mysql_connect("localhost") or die(mysql_error());
mysql_select_db("biker4yz_klw", $db) or die(mysql_error());
$query = "SELECT * FROM staff";
$result = mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error());
$table = mysql_field_table ($result, 0);
echo $table;
?>

christillis

Hi NogDog & jazz_snob, thank you very much for getting back to me. I've resolved it luckily!

I decided to try this, just to make sure it was working OK!

<?php
mysql_connect("localhost","biker4yz",) or die(mysql_error());
echo "Connected to MySQL<br />";
?>

Really kind of you to get back to me though - you've given me confidence in phpb!

😃