Before you can access data in a database, you must create a connection to
the database.
In PHP, this is done with the mysql_connect() function.
Syntax
mysql_connect(servername,username,password);
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| servername | Optional. Specifies the server to connect to. Default value is "localhost:3306" |
| username | Optional. Specifies the username to log in with. Default value is the name of the user that owns the server process |
| password | Optional. Specifies the password to log in with. Default is "" |
Note: There are more available parameters, but the ones listed above are the most important. Visit
our full PHP MySQL Reference for more details.
Example
In the following example we store the connection in a variable ($con) for later use in the
script. The "die" part will be executed if the connection fails:
<?php
$con = mysql_connect("localhost","peter","abc123");
if (!$con)
{
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
// some code
?>
$con = mysql_connect("localhost","peter","abc123");
if (!$con)
{
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
// some code
?>
Closing a Connection
The connection will be closed automatically when the script ends. To close the
connection before, use the mysql_close() function:
<?php
$con = mysql_connect("localhost","peter","abc123");
if (!$con)
{
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
// some code
mysql_close($con);
?>
$con = mysql_connect("localhost","peter","abc123");
if (!$con)
{
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
// some code
mysql_close($con);
?>
