19 Jan 10 Create a New MySQL Database with PHP
In our last article we discussed creating a MySQL database using phpMyAdmin, but what if we want to do it using PHP alone? We can do that. This tutorial will show how.
We will use four PHP functions:
- mysql_connect. This opens a connection to the MySQL server.
- mysql_error. If there is a problem, this gives us the error message.
- mysq_query. This sends (queries) MySQL information to the server.
- mysql_close. This closes your connection to the server.
In this example, we will create a database called “movies”. We will assume the MySQL server is on the localhost which it is if you are running WampServer 2 as recommended in our tutorials.
The following code will create our database. Please read the comments to understand what is happening.
<?php // First we will connect to our server. // Indicate the server address, username, and password. // If you have followed our tutorials since the beginning, your username is root. $link = mysql_connect("localhost","root","YOUR-PASSWORD-HERE"); // Now we will check to see if our $link variable shows we connected. if (!$link) // If it did not connect... { die('Sorry, I encountered this error: ' . mysql_error()); // The die function ends the script and uses the mysql_error to show us why we could not connect. } // If we've made it this far, then our connection was successful. // So now we will create our database using the SQL "create database" command. // Using the $link connection, send our request to the server to create our movies database. if (mysql_query("CREATE DATABASE movies",$link)) { // If successful, tell us it worked. echo "Database has been created."; } else // But if it doesn't work, tell us why... { echo "Could not create database: " . mysql_error(); } // Now that we are finished with the connection, we will close it. mysql_close($link); ?>
And there it is. If successful, you will now have an empty database called “movies”. In our next tutorial, we will learn how to create tables in the database.
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PHP Beginner Tutorials
Hi, your articles are very well-written and easy to follow. When can we expect to see more?
Thanks for your kind comment. :)
Unfortunately, I don’t expect to be writing more tutorials in the near future. I have other (higher priority) projects that are keeping me busy.