Keeping a Connection open?

[Anon]

Hi all,
I have a webpage with this basic format:

<some html>

<? some mysql query ?>

<somemore html>

<? another mysql query ?>

<ending html>

It seems as though I have to make 2 connections/closures to mysql_connect for each query section. I want to be able to make 1 connection...get the results from the query, display more html, then further down the page use the SAME connection to do yet another query. This doesn't seem to work though. The second query dies. Can't this be done?

Thanks,

Gary

[[deleted]]

You can run an endless number of queries on one connection, there is no need to create a new connection.

The most common problem when working with two or more queries is that people use the same vars to store the results, which then overwrite eachother. For ex:

$result = mysql_query("first query");
// do something else
$result = mysql_query("second query");
// Now all results from the first query are lost, but the connection is still open.

[Anon]

How do you mean..?

Just make a php-file called database.php or something like that. In that file you put:

$hostname = "localhost";
$username = "user";
$password = "pass";
$dbname = "database";

$connection=mysql_connect($hostname, $username, $password);
mysql_select_db($dbname) or die("Sorry, the database is down at the moment.");

Then you include that file in the one where you want the connection:

include("database.php");

Put it somewhere in the beginning of your script and don't put it in a if-condition or another loop, else it will only be usuable in between the { } brackets.

At the end of your script you put:
mysql_close($connection);

That's all..