Unit IV: Introduction to PHP

Introduction to PHP, PHP basics (Variable, data types, Constants, Operators), Flow
control (if, switch, while, for), Functions, Strings, Arrays, Form Handling (GET and
POST methods), Connecting php to a database.

1
 Introduction to PHP
PHP stands for Hypertext Preprocessor, but it is also still known around the world by its
original name, Personal Home Page. It is server side programming language. It was developed by
Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994.
History
The origins of PHP date back to 1995 when an independent software development
contractor named Rasmus Lerdorf developed a Perl/CGI script that enabled him to know how many
visitors were reading his online resume. His script performed two tasks: logging visitor information,
and displaying the count of visitors to the Web page. Because the Web as we know it today was still
young at that time, tools such as these were nonexistent, and they prompted e-mails inquiring about
Lerdorf‘s scripts. Lerdorf thus began giving away his toolset, dubbed Personal Home Page (PHP).
Advantages of PHP
PHP Is Free (as in Money)
PHP is an open source server side programming language available at free of cost that can be get
easily from the market. Its coding style is quiet easy to understand and it is very efficient on multi-
platforms like Windows, Linux, and UNIX etc. It is very flexible but powerful language, most
suitable for developing dynamic web pages.
PHP Is Cross-Platform
You can use PHP with a web server computer that runs Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris, and
many other versions of Unix. Plus, if you switch web server operating systems, you generally don't
have to change any of your PHP programs. Just copy them from your Windows server to your Unix
server, and they will still work.
While Apache is the most popular web server program used with PHP, you can also use Microsoft
Internet Information Server and any other web server that supports the CGI standard. PHP also
works with a large number of databases including MySQL, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, Sybase,
and PostgreSQL. In addition, it supports the ODBC standard for database interaction.
PHP Is Widely Used
As of March 2004, PHP is installed on more than 15 million different web sites, from countless tiny
personal home pages to giants like Yahoo!. There are many books, magazines, and web sites
devoted to teaching PHP and exploring what you can do with it. There are companies that provide
support and training for PHP. In short, if you are a PHP user, you are not alone.

2
PHP Is Built for Web Programming
Unlike most other programming languages, PHP was created from the ground up for generating
web pages. This means that common web programming tasks, such as accessing form submissions
and talking to a database, are often easier in PHP. PHP comes with the capability to format HTML,
manipulate dates and times, and manage web cookies — tasks that are often available only as add-
on libraries in other programming languages.
In terms of advantage in running, PHP does not put strain on servers. It uses its own inbuilt memory
space that decreases the workload from the servers and the processing speed automatically
enhances.
1. PHP has also upper hand in running multimedia files as PHP is not much dependent upon
external plug-ins to run the programs.
2. And, final in terms of Budget, which is the most crucial part of the software development
especially for the small business users who wants to develop money making websites to
earn thick profit in minimum investments.
3. PHP (Hypertext Pre-Processor) is a server-side web programming language that is widely
used for web development. However, here are many languages which are used for web
development or web programming. But among all of them PHP is the most popular web
scripting language. So, let us find out why PHP is widely used for web development…
4. PHP language has its roots in C and C++. PHP syntax is most similar to C and C++
language syntax. So, programmers find it easy to learn and manipulate.
5. MySQL is used with PHP as back-end tool. MySQL is the popular online database and can
be interfaced very well with PHP. Therefore, PHP and MySQL are excellent choice for
webmasters looking to automate their web sites.
6. PHP can run on both UNIX and Windows servers.
7. PHP also has powerful output buffering that further increases over the output flow. PHP
internally rearranges the buffer so that headers come before contents.
8. PHP is dynamic. PHP works in combination of HTML to display dynamic elements on the
page. PHP can be used with a large number of relational database management systems,
runs on all of the most popular web servers and is available for many different operating
systems.
9. PHP5 a fully object oriented language and its platform independence and speed on Linux
server helps to build large and complex web applications.
10. So, in general PHP is cheap, secure, fast and reliable for developing web applications.

3
What is PHP?
 PHP stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor
 PHP is a server-side scripting language, like ASP
 PHP scripts are executed on the server
 PHP supports many databases (MySQL, Informix, Oracle, Sybase, Solid, PostgreSQL,
Generic ODBC, etc.)
 PHP is an open source software
 PHP is free to download and use
What is a PHP File?
 PHP files can contain text, HTML tags and scripts
 PHP files are returned to the browser as plain HTML
 PHP files have a file extension of ".php", ".php3", or ".phtml"
Why PHP?
 PHP runs on different platforms (Windows, Linux, Unix, etc.)
 PHP is compatible with almost all servers used today (Apache, IIS, etc.)
 PHP is FREE to download from the official PHP resource: www.php.net
 PHP is easy to learn and runs efficiently on the server side
Basic PHP Syntax
A PHP scripting block always starts with <?php and ends with ?>. A PHP scripting block can be
placed anywhere in the document. On servers with shorthand support enabled you can start a
scripting block with <? and end with ?>. For maximum compatibility, we recommend that you use
the standard form (<?php) rather than the shorthand form.
A PHP file normally contains HTML tags, just like an HTML file, and some PHP scripting code.
Below, we have an example of a simple PHP script which sends the text "Hello World" to the
browser:
<html>
<body>
<?php
echo "Hello World";
?>
</body>
</html>

4
Each code line in PHP must end with a semicolon. The semicolon is a separator and is used to
distinguish one set of instructions from another. There are two basic statements to output text with
PHP: echo and print. In the example above we have used the echo statement to output the text
"Hello World". Note: The file must have a .php extension. If the file has a .html extension, the PHP
code will not be executed.
Comments in PHP
In PHP, we use // to make a single-line comment or /* and */ to make a large comment block.
<html>
<body>
<?php
//This is a comment
/*This is
a comment block */
?>
</body>
</html>
PHP Variables
A variable is used to store information. Variables are used for storing values, like text strings,
numbers or arrays. When a variable is declared, it can be used over and over again in your script.
All variables in PHP start with a $ sign symbol. The correct way of declaring a variable in PHP:
$var_name = value;
New PHP programmers often forget the $ sign at the beginning of the variable. In that case it will
not work.
Let's try creating a variable containing a string, and a variable containing a number:
<?php
$txt="Hello World!";
$x=16;
?>
Storing Values in a Variable
PHP lets you store nearly anything in a variable using one of the following datatypes:
String: Alphanumeric characters, such as sentences or names
Integer: A numeric value, expressed in whole numbers
Float: A numeric value, expressed in real numbers (decimals)

5
Boolean: Evaluates to TRUE or FALSE (sometimes evaluates to 1 for TRUE and 0 for FALSE)
Array: An indexed collection of data (see the ―Understanding Arrays‖ section later in this chapter
for more information on this subject)
Object: A collection of data and methods
PHP is a Loosely Typed Language
In PHP, a variable does not need to be declared before adding a value to it. In the example above,
you see that you do not have to tell PHP which data type the variable is. PHP automatically
converts the variable to the correct data type, depending on its value. In a strongly typed
programming language, you have to declare (define) the type and name of the variable before using
it. In PHP, the variable is declared automatically when you use it.
Naming Rules for Variables
 A variable name must start with a letter or an underscore "_"
 A variable name can only contain alpha-numeric characters and underscores (a-z, A-Z, 0-9,
and _ )
 A variable name should not contain spaces. If a variable name is more than one word, it
should be separated with an underscore ($my_string), or with capitalization ($myString)
PHP Operators
This section lists the different operators used in PHP.
Arithmetic Operators
Operator Description Example Result
+ Addition x=2 4
x+2
- Subtraction x=2 3
5-x
* Multiplication x=4 20
x*5
/ Division 15/5 3
5/2 2.5
% Modulus (division remainder) 5%2 1
10%8 2
10%2 0
++ Increment x=5 x=6
x++

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 -- Decrement x=5 x=4
x--
Assignment Operators
Operator Example Is The Same As
= x=y x=y
+= x+=y x=x+y
-= x-=y x=x-y
*= x*=y x=x*y
/= x/=y x=x/y
.= x.=y x=x.y
%= x%=y x=x%y
Comparison Operators
Operator Description Example
== is equal to 5==8 returns false
!= is not equal 5!=8 returns true
<> is not equal 5<>8 returns true
> is greater than 5>8 returns false
< is less than 5<8 returns true
>= is greater than or equal to 5>=8 returns false
<= is less than or equal to 5<=8 returns true
Logical Operators
Operator Description Example
&& and x=6, y=3, (x < 10 && y > 1) returns true
|| or x=6, y=3, (x==5 || y==5) returns false
! not x=6, y=3, !(x==y) returns true

PHP If...Else Statements

Conditional statements are used to perform different actions based on different conditions. Very
often when you write code, you want to perform different actions for different decisions. You can
use conditional statements in your code to do this.
In PHP we have the following conditional statements:
1. if statement - use this statement to execute some code only if a specified condition is
true
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 2. if...else statement - use this statement to execute some code if a condition is true and
another code if the condition is false
3. if...elseif....else statement - use this statement to select one of several blocks of code to
be executed
4. switch statement - use this statement to select one of many blocks of code to be
executed
The if Statement
Syntax
if (condition) code to be executed if condition is true;
<html>
<body>
<?php
$d=12;
if ($d%2==0)
echo "even";
?>
</body>
</html>
The if...else Statement
Syntax
if (condition)
code to be executed if condition is true;
else
code to be executed if condition is false;
Example
<html>
<body>
<?php
$d=12;
if ($d%2==0)
echo "even";
else
echo “odd”;

8
 ?>
</body>
</html>
If more than one line should be executed if a condition is true/false, the lines should be enclosed
within curly braces:
<html>
<body>
<?php
$d=date("D");
if ($d=="Fri")
{
echo "Hello!<br />";
echo "Have a nice weekend!";
echo "See you on Monday!";
}
?>
</body>
</html>
The if...elseif....else Statement
Use the if....elseif...else statement to select one of several blocks of code to be executed.
Syntax
if (condition)
code to be executed if condition is true;
elseif (condition)
code to be executed if condition is true;
else
code to be executed if condition is false;
PHP Switch Statement
Use the switch statement to select one of many blocks of code to be executed.
Syntax
switch (n)
{
case label1:

9
 code to be executed if n=label1;
break;
case label2:
code to be executed if n=label2;
break;
default:
code to be executed if n is different from both label1 and label2;
}
This is how it works: First we have a single expression n (most often a variable), that is evaluated
once. The value of the expression is then compared with the values for each case in the structure. If
there is a match, the block of code associated with that case is executed. Use break to prevent the
code from running into the next case automatically. The default statement is used if no match is
found.
Example
<html>
<body>
<?php
switch ($x)
{
case 1:
echo "Number 1";
break;
case 2:
echo "Number 2";
break;
case 3:
echo "Number 3";
break;
default:
echo "No number between 1 and 3";
}
?>

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 </body>
</html>
PHP Loops
Often when you write code, you want the same block of code to run over and over again in a row.
Instead of adding several almost equal lines in a script we can use loops to perform a task like this.
In PHP, we have the following looping statements:
 while - loops through a block of code while a specified condition is true
 do...while - loops through a block of code once, and then repeats the loop as long as a
specified condition is true
 for - loops through a block of code a specified number of times
 foreach - loops through a block of code for each element in an array
The while Loop
The while loop executes a block of code while a condition is true.
Syntax
while (condition)
{
code to be executed;
}
Example
The example below defines a loop that starts with i=1. The loop will continue to run as long as i is
less than, or equal to 5. i will increase by 1 each time the loop runs:
<html>
<body>
<?php
$i=1;
while($i<=5)
{
echo "The number is " . $i . "<br />";
$i++;
}
?>
</body>
</html>

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The do...while Statement
The do...while statement will always execute the block of code once, it will then check the
condition, and repeat the loop while the condition is true.
Syntax
do
{
code to be executed;
}
while (condition);
Example
The example below defines a loop that starts with i=1. It will then increment i with 1, and write
some output. Then the condition is checked, and the loop will continue to run as long as i is less
than, or equal to 5:
<html>
<body>
<?php
$i=1;
do
{
$i++;
echo "The number is " . $i . "<br />";
}
while ($i<=5);
?>
</body>
</html>
PHP Looping - For Loops
The for loop is used when you know in advance how many times the script should run.
Syntax
for (init; condition; increment)
{
code to be executed;
}

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Parameters:
 init: Mostly used to set a counter (but can be any code to be executed once at the beginning
of the loop)
 condition: Evaluated for each loop iteration. If it evaluates to TRUE, the loop continues. If it
evaluates to FALSE, the loop ends.
 increment: Mostly used to increment a counter (but can be any code to be executed at the
end of the loop)
Note: Each of the parameters above can be empty, or have multiple expressions (separated by
commas).
Example
The example below defines a loop that starts with i=1. The loop will continue to run as long as i is
less than, or equal to 5. i will increase by 1 each time the loop runs:
<html>
<body>
<?php
for ($i=1; $i<=5; $i++)
{
echo "The number is " . $i . "<br />";
}
?>
</body>
</html>
The foreach Loop
The foreach loop is used to loop through arrays.
Syntax
foreach ($array as $value)
{
code to be executed;
}
For every loop iteration, the value of the current array element is assigned to $value (and the array
pointer is moved by one) - so on the next loop iteration, you'll be looking at the next array value.
Example
The following example demonstrates a loop that will print the values of the given array:

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 <html>
<body>
<?php
$x=array("one","two","three");
foreach ($x as $value)
{
echo $value . "<br />";
}
?>
</body>
</html>
Output:
one
two
three
PHP Functions
The real power of PHP comes from its functions. In PHP, there are more than 700 built-in
functions. To keep the script from being executed when the page loads, you can put it into a
function. A function will be executed by a call to the function. You may call a function from
anywhere within a page.
Create a PHP Function
A function will be executed by a call to the function.
Syntax
function functionName()
{
code to be executed;
}
PHP function guidelines:
1. Give the function a name that reflects what the function does
2. The function name can start with a letter or underscore (not a number)
Example
A simple function that writes my name when it is called:

14
 <html>
<body>
<?php
function writeName()
{
echo "Kai Jim Refsnes";
}
echo "My name is ";
writeName();
?>
</body>
</html>
Output: My name is Kai Jim Refsnes
PHP Functions - Adding parameters
To add more functionality to a function, we can add parameters. A parameter is just like a variable.
Parameters are specified after the function name, inside the parentheses.
Example 1
The following example will write different first names, but equal last name:
<html>
<body>
<?php
function writeName($fname)
{
echo $fname . " Refsnes.<br />";
}
echo "My name is ";
writeName("Kai Jim");
echo "My sister's name is ";
writeName("Hege");
echo "My brother's name is ";
writeName("Stale");
?>

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 </body>
</html>
Example 2
The following function has two parameters:
<html>
<body>
<?php
function writeName($fname,$punctuation)
{
echo $fname . " Refsnes" . $punctuation . "<br />";
}
echo "My name is ";
writeName("Kai Jim",".");
echo "My sister's name is ";
writeName("Hege","!");
echo "My brother's name is ";
writeName("Ståle","?");
?>
</body>
</html>
PHP Functions - Return values
To let a function return a value, use the return statement.
Example
<html>
<body>
<?php
function add($x,$y)
{
$total=$x+$y;
return $total;
}
echo "1 + 16 = " . add(1,16);

16
 ?>
</body>
</html>
Output: 1 + 16 = 17
PHP Strings
A string variable is used to store and manipulate text. String variables are used for values that
contain characters. In this chapter we are going to look at the most common functions and operators
used to manipulate strings in PHP. After we create a string we can manipulate it. A string can be
used directly in a function or it can be stored in a variable. Below, the PHP script assigns the text
"Hello World" to a string variable called $txt:
<?php
$txt="Hello World";
echo $txt;
?>
The output of the code above will be: Hello World
The Concatenation Operator
There is only one string operator in PHP. The concatenation operator (.) is used to put two string
values together. To concatenate two string variables together, use the concatenation operator:
<?php
$txt1="Hello World!";
$txt2="What a nice day!";
echo $txt1 . " " . $txt2;
?>
The output of the code above will be: Hello World! What a nice day!
If we look at the code above you see that we used the concatenation operator two times. This is
because we had to insert a third string (a space character), to separate the two strings.
The strlen() function
The strlen() function is used to return the length of a string.
<?php
echo strlen("Hello world!");
?>
The output of the code above will be: 12
The strpos() function

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The strpos() function is used to search for a character/text within a string. If a match is found, this
function will return the character position of the first match. If no match is found, it will return
FALSE.
Let's see if we can find the string "world" in our string:
<?php
echo strpos("Hello world!","world");
?>
The output of the code above will be: 6
PHP Arrays
An array stores multiple values in one single variable.
What is an Array?
A variable is a storage area holding a number or text. The problem is, a variable will hold only one
value. An array is a special variable, which can store multiple values in one single variable.
An array can hold all your variable values under a single name. And you can access the values by
referring to the array name. Each element in the array has its own index so that it can be easily
accessed. In PHP, there are three kind of arrays:
 Numeric array - An array with a numeric index
 Associative array - An array where each ID key is associated with a value
 Multidimensional array - An array containing one or more arrays
Numeric Arrays
A numeric array stores each array element with a numeric index.There are two methods to create a
numeric array.
1. In the following example the index are automatically assigned (the index starts at 0):
$cars=array("Suzuki","Volvo","BMW","Toyota");
2. In the following example we assign the index manually:
$cars[0]="Suzuki";
$cars[1]="Volvo";
$cars[2]="BMW";
$cars[3]="Toyota";
Example
In the following example you access the variable values by referring to the array name and index:
<?php
$cars[0]="Suzuki";

18
 $cars[1]="Volvo";
$cars[2]="BMW";
$cars[3]="Toyota";
echo $cars[0] . " and " . $cars[1] . " are cars.";
?>
The code above will output: Suzuki and Volvo are cars.
Example 2
This example is the same as example 1, but shows a different way of creating the array:
$ages['Peter'] = "32";
$ages['Quagmire'] = "30";
$ages['Joe'] = "34";
The ID keys can be used in a script:
<?php
$ages['Peter'] = "32";
$ages['Quagmire'] = "30";
$ages['Joe'] = "34";
echo "Peter is " . $ages['Peter'] . " years old.";
?>
The code above will output: Peter is 32 years old.
PHP Forms and User Input
The PHP $_GET and $_POST variables are used to retrieve information from forms, like user
input.
PHP Form Handling
The most important thing to notice when dealing with HTML forms and PHP is that any form
element in an HTML page will automatically be available to your PHP scripts.
Example
The example below contains an HTML form with two input fields and a submit button:
<html>
<body>
<form action="welcome.php" method="post">
Name: <input type="text" name="fname" />
Age: <input type="text" name="age" />
<input type="submit" />

19
 </form>
</body>
</html>
When a user fills out the form above and click on the submit button, the form data is sent to a PHP
file, called "welcome.php":
"welcome.php" looks like this:
<html>
<body>
Welcome <?php echo $_POST["fname"]; ?>!<br />
You are <?php echo $_POST["age"]; ?> years old.
</body>
</html>
Output could be something like this: Welcome John! You are 28 years old.
Form Validation
User input should be validated on the browser whenever possible (by client scripts). Browser
validation is faster and reduces the server load. You should consider server validation if the user
input will be inserted into a database. A good way to validate a form on the server is to post the
form to itself, instead of jumping to a different page. The user will then get the error messages on
the same page as the form. This makes it easier to discover the error.
PHP $_GET Variable
The predefined $_GET variable is used to collect values in a form with method="get". Information
sent from a form with the GET method is visible to everyone (it will be displayed in the browser's
address bar) and has limits on the amount of information to send.
Example
<form action="http://localhost/get.php" method="get">
Name: <input type="text" name="fname" />
Age: <input type="text" name="age" />
<input type="submit" />
</form>
When the user clicks the "Submit" button, the URL sent to the server could look something like
this: http://www.w3schools.com/get.php?fname=Peter&age=37
The "get.php" file can now use the $_GET variable to collect form data (the names of the form
fields will automatically be the keys in the $_GET array):

20
 Welcome
<?php
echo $_GET["fname"]; ?>.<br />
You are <?php echo $_GET["age"];
?> years old!
When to use method="get"?
When using method="get" in HTML forms, all variable names and values are displayed in the
URL.
Note: This method should not be used when sending passwords or other sensitive information!
The get method is not suitable for very large variable values. It should not be used with values
exceeding 2000 characters.
PHP $_POST Variable
The predefined $_POST variable is used to collect values from a form sent with method="post".
Information sent from a form with the POST method is invisible to others and has no limits on the
amount of information to send.
Note: However, there is an 8 Mb max size for the POST method, by default (can be changed by
setting the post_max_size in the php.ini file).
Example
<form action="http://localhost/post.php" method="post">
Name: <input type="text" name="fname" />
Age: <input type="text" name="age" />
<input type="submit" />
</form>
When the user clicks the "Submit" button, the URL will look like this:
http://www.w3schools.com/post.php
The "post.php" file can now use the $_POST variable to collect form data (the names of the form
fields will automatically be the keys in the $_POST array):
Welcome <?php
echo $_POST["fname"];
?>!
<br />
You are
<?php

21
 echo $_POST["age"];
?> years old.
When to use method="post"?
Information sent from a form with the POST method is invisible to others and has no limits on the
amount of information to send. However, because the variables are not displayed in the URL, it is
not possible to bookmark the page.
The PHP $_REQUEST Variable
The predefined $_REQUEST variable contains the contents of both $_GET, $_POST, and
$_COOKIE. The $_REQUEST variable can be used to collect form data sent with both the GET
and POST methods.
Example
Welcome <?php echo $_REQUEST["fname"]; ?>!
<br />
You are <?php echo $_REQUEST["age"]; ?> years old.
Echo and Print
<?php
print("Some text.");
?>
This code produces the following output if you reload test.php. Some text. The echo() Statement
The most common method of generating output is probably the echo() statement. It differs slightly
from print() in that it can accept multiple arguments. Consider this prototype:
void echo ( string $arg1 [, string $... ] )
The echo() statement accepts one or more arguments, separated by commas, and outputs all of the
arguments to the browser in succession. Unlike print(), echo() does not return a value—the void
keyword in the prototype tells it not to. Because echo() is also a language construct, the parentheses
are optional and generally omitted. Add the following code to test.php:
<?php echo "Hello ", "world!"; ?>
The preceding snippet produces this output: Hello world!
Your two strings are added together as arguments to the echo() statement, producing one string
that ends up being passed to the browser. The same approach works for variables:
<?php
$foo = "Hello ";
$bar = "world!";

22
 echo $foo, $bar;
?>
This produces the same output as above: Hello world!
The printf() Statement
The next statement, printf(), gives you more fine-grained control over your output, allowing you to
define the format of data that will be sent to the browser. You can think of this statement as
meaning ―print formatted.‖
<?php
printf("PHP is %s!", "awesome");
?>
<?php
$amt1 = 2.55;
$amt2 = 3.55;
$total = $amt1 + $amt2;
echo 'The total cost is $', $total;
?>
You might expect to see this sentence when you run your code: The total cost is $6.10.
However, what you see when you run the code is this: The total cost is $6.1
For obvious reasons, this isn‘t what you want to happen if you‘re trying to display a price.
Fortunately, this is a case where printf() comes in handy; simply add the following code to test.php:
<?php
$amt1 = 2.55;
$amt2 = 3.55;
$total = $amt1 + $amt2;
printf('The total cost is $%.2f', $total);
?>
Saving and reloading produces the desired result: The total cost is $6.10
Databases
As you might expect, the theory and application of database development is a wide field. However,
to start using a database, you need only understand a few basic concepts and operations. The most
common type of database in use today is relational databases. In the most basic view, a relational
database is simply a table of rows and columns.

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The basic database operations include creating tables, defining columns, adding rows, deleting
rows, changing values of a row, and searching for rows that match some condition.
Almost always, a database is accessed through a database server: a machine running the database
software. Hence, to use a database, a connection must be established to such a server. After a
connection is made, the database is sent commands, called queries, to which the database returns a
result, usually in tabular form. Different database systems implement different methods of
communicating with them. Today, all readily accessible relational database systems use a language
known as SQL. Each system has its own variation on the basic SQL syntax, however, and these
need to be known to you to operate within that database.
For PHP to access a database, an interface library must be provided. Fortunately, interfaces for most
of the popular database systems exist, including Oracle, Sybase, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server,
and PostgreSQL.
Most Web applications:
1. Retrieve information from a database to alter their on-screen display
2. Store user data such as orders, tracking, address, credit card, etc. in a database
PHP: Built-in Database Access
 PHP provides built-in database connectivity for a wide range of databases:
 MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, Berkeley DB, Informix, mSQL, Lotus Notes, and
more
 Starting support for a specific database may involve PHP configuration steps
 Another advantage of using a programming language that has been designed for the creation
of web apps.
 Support for each database is described in the PHP manual.
High-Level Process of Using MySQL from PHP
 Create a database connection
 Select database you wish to use
 Perform a SQL query
 Do some processing on query results
 Close database connection
Creating Database Connection
 Use either mysql_connect or mysql_pconnect to create database connection
 mysql_connect: connection is closed at end of script (end of page)

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  mysql_pconnect: creates persistent connection connection remains even after end of
the page
 Parameters
 Server – hostname of server
 Username – username on the database
 Password – password on the database
 New Link (mysql_connect only) – reuse database connection created by previous
call to mysql_connect
 Client Flags
 MYSQL_CLIENT_SSL :: Use SSL
 MYSQL_CLIENT_COMPRESS :: Compress data sent to MySQL
Selecting a Database
 mysql_select_db()
 Pass it the database name
 Related:
o mysql_list_dbs()
 List databases available
o Mysql_list_tables()
 List database tables available
Perform SQL Query
 Create query string
 $query = ‗SQL formatted string‘
 $query = ‗SELECT * FROM table‘
 Submit query to database for processing
 $result = mysql_query($query);
 For UPDATE, DELETE, DROP, etc, returns TRUE or FALSE
 For SELECT, SHOW, DESCRIBE or EXPLAIN, $result is an identifier for the
results, and does not contain the results themselves
 $result is called a ―resource‖ in this case
 A result of FALSE indicates an error
 If there is an error
 mysql_error() returns error string from last MySQL call
Process Results

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Many functions exist to work with database results
 mysql_num_rows()
 Number of rows in the result set
 Useful for iterating over result set
 mysql_fetch_array()
 Returns a result row as an array
 Can be associative or numeric or both (default)
 $row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
 $row[‗column name‘] :: value comes from database row with specified column name
 $row[0] :: value comes from first field in result set
Process Results Loop - Easy loop for processing results:
$result = mysql_query($qstring);
$num_rows = mysql_num_rows($result);
for ($i=0; $i<$num_rows; $i++) {
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
// take action on database results here
}
Closing Database Connection
 mysql_close()
 Closes database connection
 Only works for connections opened withmysql_connect()
 Connections opened with mysql_pconnect()ignore this call
 Often not necessary to call this, as connections created by mysql_connect are closed
at the end of the script anyway

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