PHP/MySQL Tutorial

Overview
by Graeme Merrall
Original Site: http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/programming/php/tutorials/tutorial4.html

Graeme Merrall works in New Zealand for KC Multimedia, an Internet/intranet design company. While

sometimes being forced to use ASP, he enjoys spending his time coding in PHP, keeping the grass trimmed, and

scaring his work mates with song lyrics repeated out of context.

Open source has brought a lot more than Linux to the computing world. It has also
given us PHP and MySQL. According to Graeme, PHP and MySQL are the world's
best combination for creating data-driven sites. In the first installment of this three-
lesson tutorial, our Kiwi guide covers everything you need to know to begin
developing database hubs. He gives instructions for installation on both Unix and
Windows, and then goes on to show some simple scripts that will insert information
into a database and display that data on a Web page.

Lesson 2 covers more PHP/MySQL goodies than you could probably imagine.
Graeme starts by showing while loops, then talks about the ever-useful if-else
statement. But this information alone means little if you don't continue and see how
PHP can be used with HTML forms. By the time you've polished off this lesson,
you'll be able to add, edit, and remove information from your database.

In Lesson 3, Graeme shows some of the secrets that will turn your simple data-
driven site into a useful application. As he covers validation, he'll show how to
prevent users from leaving key form fields blank and how to make sure numeric
files don't contain letters. He'll also teach you how PHP handles includes and
functions. Plus you'll see how these two features, when deployed together, can
make the coder's life much easier. Graeme winds it all up with some tearful parting
words and a bit of advice for the aspiring PHP/MySQL coder.

PHP/MySQL Tutorial: Lesson1

by Graeme Merrall

Unless you've been living on Mars for the last six to eight months, you've
heard of open source software (OSS). This movement has got so much
momentum that even the big boys are taking notice. Companies like
Oracle, Informix, and a host of others are releasing their flagship database
products for that poster child of the OSS movement, Linux.

Having a massively complex RDBMS (relational database management

system) is all well and good if you know what to do with it. But perhaps
you are just getting into the world of databases. You've read Jay's article
and you want to put up your own data-driven Web site. But you find you
don't have the resources or desire for an ASP server or some pricey
database. You want something free, and you want it to work with Unix.

PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 1 of 32

 Enter PHP and MySQL. These two make up what must be the best
combination for data-driven Web sites on the planet. You needn't take my
word for it. An unofficial Netcraft survey shows that PHP usage has jumped
from 7,500 hosts in June 1998 to 410,000 in March 1999. That's not bad.
The combination was also awarded Database of the Year at Webcon98,
where it received a lovely tiara.

MySQL is a small, compact database server ideal for small - and not so
small - applications. In addition to supporting standard SQL (ANSI), it
compiles on a number of platforms and has multithreading abilities on Unix
servers, which make for great performance. For non-Unix people, MySQL
can be run as a service on Windows NT and as a normal process in
Windows 95/98 machines.

PHP is a server-side scripting language. If you've seen ASP, you'll be

familiar with embedding code within an HTML page. Like ASP, PHP script is
processed by the Web server. After the server plays with the PHP code, it
returns plain old HTML back to the browser. This kind of interaction allows
for some pretty complex operations.

In addition to being free (MySQL does have some licensing restrictions

though), the PHP-MySQL combination is also cross-platform, which means
you can develop in Windows and serve on a Unix platform. Also, PHP can
be run as an external CGI process, a stand-alone script interpreter, or an
embedded Apache module.

If you're interested, PHP also supports a massive number of databases,

including Informix, Oracle, Sybase, Solid, and PostgreSQL - as well as the
ubiquitous ODBC.

PHP supports a host of other features right at the technological edge of

Internet development. These include authentication, XML, dynamic image
creation, WDDX, shared memory support, and dynamic PDF document
creation to name but a few. If that's not enough, PHP is easy to extend, so
you can roll your own solution if you're programming savvy.

Finally, since both efforts are collaborative in nature, there's always plenty
of support from documentation and mailing lists. Bugs are fixed rapidly,
and requests for features are always heard, evaluated, and if feasible,
implemented.

Enough talk! Let's go over what we're going to cover in this tutorial.

Lesson 1 is going to cover the installation of these products

on both Unix and Windows systems. If you don't need to
worry about that (you're working on your ISP's machine,
perhaps), jump right to the first example scripts, where the
magic starts.

In Lesson 2 we'll look at some more complex scripting

goodies, including looping, form input, and sending data
from and to the database.

Lesson 3 will cover validation and techniques for making

your PHP scripts smart and clean.

PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 2 of 32

 Let's roll.

Installing MySQL

Let's jump straight in, grab ourselves a copy of these great packages, and
get hacking! This isn't simple stuff. There are lots of options available to
you for obtaining, compiling, and installing the software. Let's deal with
MySQL first, as we'll need it before we get PHP going.

MySQL central is http://www.mysql.com/. As befits a program of its

stature, there are a zillion mirrors located all over the globe, so do the
Internet a favor and pick the one closest to you.

You've got plenty of choices at this point. If you're a do-it-yourselfer, then

grab the source code. If you're not that brave, there are some precompiled
binaries for other platforms already available for download.

In addition, there is a shareware version of MySQL for Windows users. It is

an older version of MySQL. If you want the latest version, you'll have to
purchase a license. There are also ODBC drivers that let your applications
talk to MySQL. Various other exciting bits and pieces are lurking about on
the site, too, so take a look.

The precompiled Unix versions and the Windows version are as simple as
unpacking and going, and they don't require much explanation. So let's
compile from the source code. Windows users, please keep in mind that
you need to run mysqld in the mysql/bin directory.

Download the compressed file into your source directory and uncompress
and untar it using gzip and tar. The fast way of doing this is to type:

gunzip < mysql-xxxx.tar.gz | tar xvf -

The xxxx is where you put the version number. This will create a directory
called mysql-xxxx, which contains all the source files. Move to that
directory by typing cd mysql-xxxx and check out the various README and
INSTALL files. They're lifesavers in sticky situations.

MySQL comes with a handy configuration script. Simply type ./configure

and let things take care of themselves. If you need to specify what
happens and where, typing ./configure --help gives you a list of options
to choose from. For example, if you're compiling on a machine with little
memory, you can opt for the --with-low-memory flag. I like MySQL to
install in one handy directory tree rather then in various locations on my
machine, so I specify an install location with the --prefix flag.

You can also specify lots of other options, such as what to compile and
what to skip. Let's assume that we want everything under
/usr/local/mysql on our server. This means we'd type ./configure --
prefix=/usr/local/mysql.

The configure script will run and inspect your system and then build the
necessary files to successfully compile. If it fails, you'll usually get a helpful
error message saying why. Quite often, you'll find the script will fail when
it's looking for threading libraries. Check that you've got MIT-pthreads

PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 3 of 32

 installed on your machine, and if not, add them. Linux users will have to
download LinuxThreads. These are critical libraries that allow MySQL to
multithread (i.e., run multiple versions of itself). Recent distributions of
Linux may already have these libraries installed.

If everything goes according to plan, simply type make and go get a coffee.
MySQL is a complex program and takes some time to compile. If you get
an error, check the documentation to see if there is anything specific that
you've missed for your particular OS.

Next, type make install and all the necessary files will be installed in all
the necessary spots. Now you're almost ready to roll! If you are a MySQL
virgin and you've never installed MySQL before, you need to create the
default permissions, so type ... scripts/mysql_install_db to set these
up.

That's it. We're ready to roll. All we need to do is add the ability to start
and stop the server at boot-up and shutdown times. And yes, there's a
script for that as well. Typing mysql.server start starts the server, and
mysql.server stop stops the server. It's kind of obvious, really. To start
the server manually (so you can play without rebooting) enter the root
directory in your MySQL installation (/usr/local/mysql) and type
bin/safe_mysqld &.

You're halfway there. Now on to PHP.

Installing PHP

Phew! Hopefully you've got MySQL all up and running by now. That was
almost fun! Now for PHP ... This process is slightly easier, but the array of
options is dazzling. Don't be daunted, though. You can always go back
later and recompile PHP to add or remove options as needed.

The home of PHP is http://www.php.net/. The PHP site is a mine of

information, from project listings to bug reports. As with MySQL, you
should choose a nearby mirror. Obviously you'll want the Downloads
section to get PHP. I'll be taking you through an installation of PHP3. To
learn how to tackle PHP4, read Webmonkey Julie's detailed PHP4
installation instructions.

Your range of options here is a little more limited. A few precompiled

binaries are available, but these are experimental. If you're on anything
except a Windows platform, grab the source code and compile it yourself.

But first let's cover Windows. When using PHP, a common practice is to
develop on a Windows machine and then run your site on a Unix server. It
may end up that you will do this yourself, which means you need to be
proficient in installing on both platforms.

Let's grab the Windows binary and uncompress it using our favorite Zip
decompression tool into a directory on your C drive called php3. The
supplied README file deals with the installation in some detail, but here's
the Reader's Digest version: If you want to install PHP to a folder other
than C:\php3, you'll need to edit the .inf file that comes with PHP.

PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 4 of 32

 In the php3 directory, you'll find a lot of .dll files. Take all the .dll files that
don't begin with php_ and move them into your \windows\system
directory. Then rename php.ini-dist to php3.ini and move it into your
\windows directory. If you open up that file, you'll see there are lots of
interesting things to change. For now just "uncomment" the line:

extension=php3_mysql.dll

If you're using Apache for Win32, set up Apache to recognize and parse
PHP files. Depending on the version of Apache you're using, you'll need to
add the following to either the httpd.conf or srm.conf file:

ScriptAlias /php3/"c:/path-to-php-dir/"
AddType application/x-httpd-php3 .php3
Action application/x-httpd-php3"/php3/php.exe"

Or if you're using IIS or PWS, right-click on php_iis_reg.inf and select

'Install'. You'll need to reboot for IIS to see this change.

OK, now that Windows is out of the way, let's get to Unix. Of course, we'll
be compiling from source code. As with MySQL, download and unpack the
source code. Again, PHP comes with a configure script. You can't get away
with going for defaults here, though. Run ./configure -help | more to
see pages and pages of new and interesting options. You have to decide
between compiling as a CGI or as an Apache module. If you are using the
Apache Web server and you are able to recompile it, use the module: It's
faster and easier to use. Otherwise, you can go with the CGI version. We
also need to compile in MySQL support.

For now we'll assume that we're running the module with MySQL support.
If you want to add other options or other libraries, you can do this later.
Type:

./configure --with-apache=/path/to/apache/dir --
with-mysql=/usr/local/mysql

Skip the -with-apache option if you're creating a CGI version. The

configure process will run and produce the relevant system files. Now
simply type make again.

It's time for another coffee. If you start feeling a bit nervous and shaky at
this point, don't worry about it. We all get a little anxious during our first
PHP install. Have some more coffee.

If you've created a CGI version, you're now ready to roll. Simply copy the
resulting executable file into your CGI file. For Apache module users, type
make install to copy files to your Apache directory. From there, follow
the instructions to add a module to Apache and recompile.

You'll need to tell your Web server how to process pages through the PHP
program now. If you're not using Apache, you'll need to check your Web
server documentation on how to get it to process documents with a .php3
extension. Apache 1.3.x users can simply add AddType application/x-
httpd-php3 .php3 to the httpd.conf or srm.conf file. If you're using the
CGI version, you'll need to add the following before AddType:

PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 5 of 32

 ScriptAlias /php3/"/path-to-php-dir/" AddType
application/x-httpd-php3 .php3 Action
application/x-httpd-php3"/php3/php"

That's it. With any luck, you've now got MySQL running and PHP
functioning. Don't forget to check the FAQs and documentation if you get
stuck. Also try the mailing lists.

Now that we've managed all that, lets put this stuff in motion!

Your First Script

You'll be glad to know that the really tricky stuff is behind you. Installation
of software is always a black hole because so much changes from system
to system. But with any luck your database is up and running, and PHP is
compiled and installed with our Web server and able to recognize
documents with .php3 extensions.

Let's dive right in and write our first script. Create a text file containing the
following:

<html>

<body>
<?php

$myvar = "Hello World";

echo $myvar;

?>
</body>

</html>

Now call up the URL, for instance, http://myserver/test.php3. You should

see a page containing the text "Hello World." If you get an error message,
check the PHP documentation to see if you set things up properly.

That's it! That's your first PHP script. If you view the HTML source for the
page, you'll see that there is only the text. Hello World

That's because the PHP engine has examined the page, processed any
code blocks that it found, and returned only HTML.

The first thing you'll notice about the script above are the delimiters. These
are the lines that start <?php. This indicates the start of a block of PHP
code, and ?> indicates the end of the block. The power of PHP is that these
can be placed anywhere - and I mean anywhere - in your code in any
number of ways. Later we'll see some interesting uses for these, but for
now let's keep it simple. If you wish, you can also configure PHP to use
short tags, <?, and ?>, but these are not XML compliant, so be careful. If
you're making the switch from ASP, you can even configure PHP to use the
<% and %> delimiters.

PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 6 of 32

 Another thing you'll notice is the semicolon on the end of each line. These
are known as separators and serve to distinguish one set of instructions
from another. It is feasible to write an entire PHP script on one line and
separate the portions with semicolons. But that would be a mess, so we'll
add a new line after each semicolon. Just remember that each line must
end in a semicolon.

Finally, you see that the word myvar begins with a dollar sign. This symbol
tells PHP that this is a variable. We assigned the words "Hello World" to the
variable $myvar. A variable can also contain numbers or an array. Either
way, all variables start with the dollar sign symbol.

The real power of PHP comes from its functions. These are basically
processing instructions. If you add up all of the optional add-ins to PHP,
there are more than 700 functions available. So there's quite a bit you can
do.

Now let's add some MySQL to the picture.

Load Up a Database

So now we're ready to plug in MySQL. One handy

way of knowing what options are available in PHP
and what's going on in your server is to use the
phpinfo() function. Create a script with the
following:

<html>

<body>
<?php

phpinfo();

?>

</body>

</html>

Save and view this script through your Web server.

You'll see a page filled with useful and interesting
information like this. This info tells all about your
server, internal Web server environment variables,
the options that are compiled, and on and on. In
the first section, Extensions, look for a line
beginning with MySQL. If this is missing, then for
some reason MySQL hasn't made it into PHP. Go
back and review the installation steps and check
the PHP documentation to see if you missed
anything.

If MySQL is there, then you're ready to roll.

Before we can get data out of MySQL, we have to

PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 7 of 32

 put data in it. There's really no easy way to do it at
this stage. Most PHP scripts come with what's
known as a dump file that contains all the data
required to create and populate a MySQL
database. The ins and outs of this process are
really outside the scope of this tutorial, so I'll just
do it for you.

MySQL uses its own user permissions table. At

setup, a default user (root) is automatically
created with no password. It's up to the database
administrator to add other users with various
permissions, but I could write a whole other article
on that, so we'll stick with using the root user. If
you set up your own server and database, it's vital
that you assign a password to the root user.

Anyway, let's get on with the database. For Win32

users, I'm sorry, but this requires some DOS work.
You'll have to use a DOS window or type
everything in the Run window. Don't forget to type
in the path to the location of the MySQL/bin
directory with your commands. Unix users can
work from the MySQL bin directory, but you may
have to start each command with ./ so the
programs run.

The first thing we need to do is create the actual

database. From the command line, type:

mysqladmin -u root create mydb

That creates a database called "mydb." The flag

tells MySQL that we're doing this as the root user.

Next we'll add some data using everyone's favorite

example, the employees database. We're going to
need that dump file I mentioned earlier. If you're
interested in how it goes together, review the
manual that comes with MySQL or check out
http://www.turbolift.com/mysql/.

Copy and paste the following text to a file and

save it in MySQL's bin directory. (I'll call the file
mydb.dump.)

CREATE TABLE employees ( id tinyint(4) DEFAULT '0' NOT NULL

AUTO_INCREMENT, first varchar(20), last varchar(20), address
varchar(255), position varchar(50), PRIMARY KEY (id), UNIQUE
id (id));INSERT INTO employees VALUES (1,'Bob','Smith','128
Here St, Cityname','Marketing Manager');

INSERT INTO employees VALUES (2,'John','Roberts','45 There St ,

Townville','Telephonist');

INSERT INTO employees VALUES (3,'Brad','Johnson','1/34 Nowhere

Blvd, Snowston','Doorman');

PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 8 of 32

 If the lines wrap, make sure that each insert
statement is on a new line. Now we'll insert it into
the mydb database. From the command line, type:

mysql -u root mydb < mydb.dump

You shouldn't get any errors doing this. If you do,

check for incorrect line wrapping.

Pull It Back Out

OK, now we've got our data in the database. Let's do something with it.
Copy and paste the following into a text file and save it in your Web server
document tree with a .php3 extension.

<html>
<body>
<?php
$db = mysql_connect("localhost", "root");
mysql_select_db("mydb",$db);
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM employees",$db);
printf("First Name: %s<br>\n",
mysql_result($result,0,"first"));
printf("Last Name: %s<br>\n", mysql_result($result,0,"last"));
printf("Address: %s<br>\n", mysql_result($result,0,"address"));
printf("Position: %s<br>\n",
mysql_result($result,0,"position"));
?>
</body>
</html>

Let's explain what happens here. The mysql_connect() function opens a

link to a MySQL server on the specified host (in this case it's localhost)
along with a username (root). If you needed to specify a password, you'd
add it here as well. The result of the connection is stored in the variable
$db.

mysql_select_db() then tells PHP that any queries we make are against
the mydb database. We could create multiple connections to databases on
different servers. But for now, let's leave it to this.

Next, mysql_query() does all the hard work. Using the database
connection identifier, it sends a line of SQL to the MySQL server to be
processed. The results that are returned are stored in the variable
$result.

Finally, mysql_result() is used to display the values of fields from our

query. Using $result, we go to the first row, which is numbered 0, and
display the value of the specified fields.

PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 9 of 32

 The syntax of the printf function may seem a little odd if you haven't
used Perl or C before. In each of the lines above, %s indicates that the
variable in the second half of the expression (e.g.,
mysql_result($result,0,"position")) should be treated as a string and
printed. For more on printf, see the PHP documentation.

So there we have it. We successfully complied, installed, and configured

MySQL and PHP, and we've executed a simple script to retrieve some
information. In Lesson 2, we'll do some clever stuff to display multiple
records and even send data to and from the database.

Come on back, now.

PHP/MySQL Tutorial: Lesson2

by Graeme Merrall

In this lesson, we're going to dive right in and create some simple yet
useful pages using PHP and MySQL. Let's start by displaying the database
we created yesterday, but with a little more panache.

First, let's query our database using the following code.

<html>
<body>
<?php
$db = mysql_connect("localhost", "root");
mysql_select_db("mydb",$db);
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM employees",$db);
echo "<table border=1>\n";
echo "<tr><td>Name</td><td>Position</tr>\n";
while ($myrow = mysql_fetch_row($result)) {
printf("<tr><td>%s %s</td><td>%s</td></tr>\n",
$myrow[1], $myrow[2], $myrow[3]);
}
echo "</table>\n";
?>
</body>
</html>

You probably noticed that we introduced a couple of new features here.

Most obvious is the while() loop. The loop says that as long as there are
new rows of data to be grabbed (using the mysql_fetch_row() function),
assign that row to the $myrow variable. Then execute the instructions
between the curly brackets ({}). Take a look for a second, and this should
make sense.

The mysql_fetch_row() function bears a closer look. One small problem

with mysql_fetch_row() is that it returns an array that supports only
numeric references to the individual fields. So the first field is referred to

PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 10 of 32

 as 0, the second as 1, and so on. With complex queries this can become
something of a nightmare.

Now let's examine the loop in more detail. The first few lines you'll
recognize from the example in Lesson 1. Then in the while() loop we
fetch a row from the result and assign it to the array $myrow. Then we
print the contents of the array on the screen with the printf function.
After that it loops around again, and another row is assigned to $myrow. It
will do this until it runs out of rows to grab.

The great thing about a while() loop is that if your query returns no
records, you won't get an error message. The first time through there
won't be any data to assign to $myrow, and the program will just move on.

But if the query returns no data, we have no way of letting the user know,
and we should probably provide some sort of message. This is possible, so
let's do it.

Stay Informed

Take a look at this script.

<html>
<body>
<?php
$db = mysql_connect("localhost", "root");
mysql_select_db("mydb",$db);
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM employees",$db);
if ($myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
echo "<table border=1>\n";
echo "<tr><td>Name</td><td>Position</td></tr>\n";
do {
printf("<tr><td>%s %s</td><td>%s</tr>\n", $myrow["first"],
$myrow["last"], $myrow["address"]);
} while ($myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result));
echo "</table>\n";
} else {
echo "Sorry, no records were found!";
}
?>
</body>
</html>
There are a number of new features introduced
here, but they're quite simple. First, there's the
mysql_fetch_array() function. This is exactly the
same as mysql_fetch_row() with one nice
exception: Using this function, we can refer to
fields by their names (such as $myrow["first"])
rather than their numbers. This should save us
some headaches. We've also introduced a do/while

PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 11 of 32

 loop and an if-else statement.

The if-else statement says that if we can assign a

row to $myrow, then continue; otherwise skip to
the else section and do what's in there.

The do/while loop is a variation of the while()

loop we used on the last page. We need the
do/while loop here for a very good reason: With
the initial if statement, we assigned the first row
returned by the query to the variable $myrow. If at
this point we executed a regular while statement
(such as while ($myrow =
mysql_fetch_row($result)), we'd be kicking the
first record out of the variable and replacing it with
the second record. But the do/while loop lets us
test the condition after the code has been run
once. So there's no chance of us accidentally
skipping a row.

Finally, if there are no records returned at all, the

statements contained in the else{} portion will be
executed. To see this portion in action, change the
SQL statement to SELECT * FROM employees
WHERE id=6 or something else that will return no
records.

Now let's extend this looping and if-else code to

make one fancy-schmancy page. You're going to
love it.

Link Intelligently

We're going to take that looping power we just

learned and use it in a more practical example. But
before we proceed here, you should know how to
work with forms, the querystring, and the GET and
POST methods. Jay covered this not long ago, so
go take a look at his article if this is unfamiliar to
you.

Right now I'm going to work with the querystring.

As you should know, there are three ways to get
information into the querystring. The first is to use
the GET method in a form. The second is to type
the information into the URL on your browser. And
third, you can embed a querystring in a standard
link. Just make the anchor tag look something like
this: <a
href="http://my_machine/mypage.php3?id=1">.
We're going to use this technique right now.

First off, lets query our database again and list the
employee names. Look at the following script.
Much of this should look pretty familiar by now.

PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 12 of 32

 <html>
<body>
<?php
$db = mysql_connect("localhost", "root");
mysql_select_db("mydb",$db);
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM employees",$db);
if ($myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
do {
printf("<a href=\"%s?id=%s\">%s %s</a><br>\n", $PHP_SELF,
$myrow["id"], $myrow["first"], $myrow["last"]);
} while ($myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result));
} else {
echo "Sorry, no records were found!";
}
?>
</body>
</html>
Everything's about the same except the printf
function, so let's look at it in some detail.

First notice that each quotation mark is preceeded

by a backslash. The backslash tells PHP to display
the character following it, rather than treat it as
part of the code. Also note the use of the variable
$PHP_SELF. This variable, which stores the script's
name and location, is passed along with every PHP
page. It's helpful here because we just want this
file to call itself. Using $PHP_SELF, we can be sure
that will happen, even if the file is moved to
another directory - or even another machine.

As I just mentioned, these links will recall the

page. On the second time through, however, some
information will be added to the querystring.

PHP does a nifty thing when it sees a name=value

pair in the querystring. It automatically creates a
variable with the name and value the querystring
indicated. This feature allows us to test if it's the
first or second time through this page. All we have
to do is ask PHP if the variable $id exists.

Once I know the answer to that question, I can

display a different set of information the second
time through. Here's how:
<html>
<body>
<?php
$db = mysql_connect("localhost", "root");
mysql_select_db("mydb",$db);
// display individual record
if ($id) {
PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 13 of 32
 $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM employees WHERE
id=$id",$db);
$myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result);
printf("First name: %s\n<br>", $myrow["first"]);
printf("Last name: %s\n<br>", $myrow["last"]);
printf("Address: %s\n<br>", $myrow["address"]);
printf("Position: %s\n<br>", $myrow["position"]);
} else {
// show employee list
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM employees",$db);
if ($myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
// display list if there are records to display
do {
printf("<a href=\"%s?id=%s\">%s %s</a><br>\n",
$PHP_SELF, $myrow["id"], $myrow["first"], $myrow["last"]);
} while ($myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result));
} else {
// no records to display
echo "Sorry, no records were found!";
}
}
?>
</body>
</html>
This code is getting complex now, so I've started
to use comments to keep track of what's going on.
You can use // to make a single-line comment or
/* and */ to start and end a large comment block.

And there we have it: your first truly useful

PHP/MySQL script! Now let's take a look at how to
plug forms into it and send information back into
the database.

Throw in Some Forms

We've managed to get data from a database

without much difficulty. But what about sending
data the other way? It's not a problem with PHP.

First let's create a page with a simple form.

<html>
<body>
<form method="post" action="<?php echo $PHP_SELF?>">
First name:<input type="Text" name="first"><br>
Last name:<input type="Text" name="last"><br>
Address:<input type="Text" name="address"><br>
Position:<input type="Text" name="position"><br>

PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 14 of 32

 <input type="Submit" name="submit" value="Enter information">
</form>
</body>
</html>
Note the use of $PHP_SELF again. Like I said in
Lesson 1, you can use PHP anywhere inside your
HTML code. You'll also notice that each form
element matches the field name in the database.
This is not compulsory; it's just a good idea so you
can get your head around your code later on.

Also notice that I've given the Submit button a

name attribute. I've done this so I can test for the
existence of a $submit variable. That way, when
the page is called again, I'll know whether
someone used this form.

I should mention that you don't have to have a

page that loops back on itself. You can span two,
three, or more pages, if you like. This way
everything stays compact.

OK, let's add some code that will check for the
form input. Just to prove that the form input does
make it through, I'll dump all the variables to the
screen with $HTTP_POST_VARS. This is a useful
debugging feature. If you ever need to see all the
variables on a page, use $GLOBALS.

<html>
<body>
<?php
if ($submit) {
// process form
while (list($name, $value) = each($HTTP_POST_VARS)) {
echo "$name = $value<br>\n";
}
} else{
// display form
?>
<form method="post" action="<?php echo $PHP_SELF?>">
First name:<input type="Text" name="first"><br>
Last name:<input type="Text" name="last"><br>
Address:<input type="Text" name="address"><br>
Position:<input type="Text" name="position"><br>
<input type="Submit" name="submit" value="Enter information">
</form>
<?php
} // end if
?>
</body>

PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 15 of 32

 </html>
Now that this is looking good, let's take the form
information and post it to the database.

<html>
<body>
<?php
if ($submit) {
// process form
$db = mysql_connect("localhost", "root");
mysql_select_db("mydb",$db);
$sql = "INSERT INTO employees (first,last,address,position)
VALUES ('$first','$last','$address','$position')";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
echo "Thank you! Information entered.\n";
} else{
// display form
?>
<form method="post" action="<?php echo $PHP_SELF?>">
First name:<input type="Text" name="first"><br>
Last name:<input type="Text" name="last"><br>
Address:<input type="Text" name="address"><br>
Position:<input type="Text" name="position"><br>
<input type="Submit" name="submit" value="Enter information">
</form>
<?php
} // end if
?>
</body>
</html>

You've now inserted data into the database. It's

still far from perfect. What if someone leaves a
field blank or enters text when we want a numeric
entry? What if there's an error somewhere?

Don't worry. We'll get to that.

Make the Forms Smarter

Throughout this tutorial, I've been loading the SQL

statement into a variable ($sql) before firing the
query at the database with mysql_query(). This is
useful for debugging. If something goes wrong,
you can always echo the SQL to the screen to
examine it for mistakes.

We already know how to get data into the

database. Now let's try modifying records that are
already in the database. Editing data combines two

PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 16 of 32

 elements we've already seen: displaying data on
the screen and sending data back to the database
via form input. However, editing is slightly
different in that we have to show the appropriate
data in the form.

First, let's recycle the code from Lesson 1 to

display the employee names on our page. But this
time through, we're going to populate our form
with employee information. It should look a little
like this:

<html>
<body>
<?php
$db = mysql_connect("localhost", "root");
mysql_select_db("mydb",$db);
if ($id) {
// query the DB
$sql = "SELECT * FROM employees WHERE id=$id";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
$myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result);
?>
<form method="post" action="<?php echo $PHP_SELF?>">
<input type=hidden name="id" value="<?php echo $myrow["id"]
?>">
First name:<input type="Text" name="first" value="<?php echo
$myrow["first"] ?>"><br>
Last name:<input type="Text" name="last" value="<?php echo
$myrow["last"] ?>"><br>
Address:<input type="Text" name="address" value="<?php echo
$myrow["address"] ?>"><br>
Position:<input type="Text" name="position" value="<?php echo
$myrow["position"] ?>"><br>
<input type="Submit" name="submit" value="Enter information">
</form>
<?php
} else {
// display list of employees
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM employees",$db);
while ($myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
printf("<a href=\"%s?id=%s\">%s %s</a><br>\n", $PHP_SELF,
$myrow["id"], $myrow["first"], $myrow["last"]);
}
}
?>
</body>
</html>

PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 17 of 32

 We just echoed the field information into the value
attribute of the each element, which was fairly
easy. Let's build on this a little more. We will add
the ability to send the edited code back to the
database. Again, we're going to use the Submit
button to test whether we need to process the
form input. Also note the slightly different SQL
statement we use.

<html>
<body>
<?php
$db = mysql_connect("localhost", "root");
mysql_select_db("mydb",$db);
if ($id) {
if ($submit) {
$sql = "UPDATE employees SET
first='$first',last='$last',address='$address',position='$posit
ion' WHERE id=$id";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
echo "Thank you! Information updated.\n";
} else {
// query the DB
$sql = "SELECT * FROM employees WHERE id=$id";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
$myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result);
?>
<form method="post" action="<?php echo $PHP_SELF?>">
<input type=hidden name="id" value="<?php echo $myrow["id"]
?>">
First name:<input type="Text" name="first" value="<?php
echo $myrow["first"] ?>"><br>
Last name:<input type="Text" name="last" value="<?php echo
$myrow["last"] ?>"><br>
Address:<input type="Text" name="address" value="<?php echo
$myrow["address"] ?>"><br>
Position:<input type="Text" name="position" value="<?php
echo $myrow["position"] ?>"><br>
<input type="Submit" name="submit" value="Enter
information">
</form>
<?php
}
} else {
// display list of employees
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM employees",$db);
while ($myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
printf("<a href=\"%s?id=%s\">%s %s</a><br>\n", $PHP_SELF,
$myrow["id"], $myrow["first"], $myrow["last"]);
PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 18 of 32
 }
}
?>
</body>
</html>

And that's that. We've managed to combine most

of the features we've seen into one script. You can
also see how we've used an if() statement inside
another if() statement to check for multiple
conditions.

It's time to put it all together and make one killer

script.

All Together Now

We'll finish up this lesson by putting everything

into a single page that can add, edit, and remove
entries from the database. It's an extension of
what we've covered so far and makes for a good
review. Let's take a look.

<html>
<body>
<?php
$db = mysql_connect("localhost", "root");
mysql_select_db("mydb",$db);
if ($submit) {
// here if no ID then adding else we're editing
if ($id) {
$sql = "UPDATE employees SET
first='$first',last='$last',address='$address',position='$posit
ion' WHERE id=$id";
} else {
$sql = "INSERT INTO employees (first,last,address,position)
VALUES ('$first','$last','$address','$position')";
}
// run SQL against the DB
$result = mysql_query($sql);
echo "Record updated/edited!<p>";
} elseif ($delete) {
// delete a record
$sql = "DELETE FROM employees WHERE id=$id";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
echo "$sql Record deleted!<p>";
} else {
// this part happens if we don't press submit

PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 19 of 32

 if (!$id) {
// print the list if there is not editing
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM employees",$db);
while ($myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
printf("<a href=\"%s?id=%s\">%s %s</a> \n", $PHP_SELF,
$myrow["id"], $myrow["first"], $myrow["last"]);
printf("<a href=\"%s?id=%s&delete=yes\">(DELETE)</a><br>",
$PHP_SELF, $myrow["id"]);
}
}
?>
<P>
<a href="<?php echo $PHP_SELF?>">ADD A RECORD</a>
<P>
<form method="post" action="<?php echo $PHP_SELF?>">
<?php
if ($id) {
// editing so select a record
$sql = "SELECT * FROM employees WHERE id=$id";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
$myrow = mysql_fetch_array($result);
$id = $myrow["id"];
$first = $myrow["first"];
$last = $myrow["last"];
$address = $myrow["address"];
$position = $myrow["position"];
// print the id for editing
?>
<input type=hidden name="id" value="<?php echo $id ?>">
<?php
}
?>
First name:<input type="Text" name="first" value="<?php echo
$first ?>"><br>
Last name:<input type="Text" name="last" value="<?php echo
$last ?>"><br>
Address:<input type="Text" name="address" value="<?php echo
$address ?>"><br>
Position:<input type="Text" name="position" value="<?php echo
$position ?>"><br>
<input type="Submit" name="submit" value="Enter information">
</form>
<?php
}
?>
</body>
</html>

PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 20 of 32

 This looks complex, but it really isn't. The script is
broken up into three parts. The first if()
statement checks to see whether the Submit
button has been pressed, and if it has, it checks to
see whether the variable $id exists. If doesn't,
then we're adding a record. Otherwise, we're
editing a record.

Next we check to see whether the variable

$delete exists. If it does, we delete a record. Note
that with the first if() statement we checked for a
variable that came through as a POST, and in this
one, the variable would be part of a GET.

Finally, we take the default action that displays the

list of employees and the form. Again we check for
the existence of the $id variable. If it exists, we
query the database to display the relevant record.
Otherwise, we display a blank form.

We've now put all we've learned into one script.

We used while() loops and if() statements, and
we ran the gamut of the basic SQL statements -
SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE. Lastly,
we've looked at how we can pass information from
one page to another using URLs and form input.

In Lesson 3 we'll look at how to make the page

more intelligent.

PHP/MySQL Tutorial: Lesson3

by Graeme Merrall

Welcome to the third and final lesson for this

tutorial. If you've gone through Lesson 1 and
Lesson 2, you already know the essentials for
installing and writing useful scripts with MySQL
and PHP. We're going to look at some useful PHP
functions that should make your life a lot easier.
First, let's look at include files.

We all know the basics of includes, right? Contents

of an external file are referenced and imported into
the main file. It's pretty easy: You call a file and
it's included. When we do this in PHP there are two
functions we need to talk about: include() and
require(). The difference between these two
functions is subtle but important, so let's take a
closer look. The require() function works in a
XSSI-like way; files are included as part of the
original document as soon as that file is parsed,
regardless of its location in the script. So if you

PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 21 of 32

 decide to place a require() function inside a
conditional loop, the external file will be included
even if that part of the conditional loop is false.

The include() function imports the referenced file

each time it is encountered. If it's not
encountered, PHP won't bother with it. This means
that you can use include in loops and conditional
statements, and they'll work exactly as planned.

Finally, if you use require() and the file you're

including does not exist, your script will halt and
produce an error. If you use include(), your
script will generate a warning, but carry on. You
can test this yourself by trying the following script.
Run the script, then replace include() with
require() and compare the results.

<html>

<body>

<?php

include("emptyfile.inc");

echo "Hello World";

?>

</body>

</html>

I like to use the suffix .inc with my include files so

I can separate them from normal PHP scripts. If
you do this, make sure that you set your Web
server configuration file to parse .inc files as PHP
files. Otherwise, hackers might be able to guess
the name of your include files and display them
through the browser as text files. This could be
bad if you've got sensitive information - such as
database passwords - contained in the includes.

So what are you going to do with include files?

Simple! Place information common to all pages
inside them. Things like HTML headers, footers,
database connection code, and user-defined
functions are all good candidates. Paste this text
into a file called header.inc.

<?php

$db = mysql_connect("localhost", "root");

mysql_select_db("mydb",$db);

?>

PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 22 of 32

 <html>

<head>

<title>

<?php echo $title ?>

</title>

</head>

<body>

<center><h2><?php echo $title ?></h2></center>

Then create another file called footer.txt that

contains some appropriate closing text and tags.

Now let's create a third file containing the actual

PHP script. Try the following code, making sure
that your MySQL server is running.

<?php

$title = "Hello World";

include("header.inc");

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM employees",$db);

echo "<table border=1>\n";

echo "<tr><td>Name</td><td>Position</tr>\n";

while ($myrow = mysql_fetch_row($result)) {

printf("<tr><td>%s %s</td><td>%s</tr>\n", $myrow[1],

$myrow[2], $myrow[3]);

echo "</table>\n";

include("footer.inc");

?>

See what happens? The include files are tossed

into the main file and then the whole thing is
executed by PHP. Notice how the variable $title
was defined before header.inc is referenced. Its
value is made available to the code in header.inc;
hence, the title of the page is changed. You can
now use header.inc across all your PHP pages, and
all you'll have to do is change the value of $title

PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 23 of 32

 from page to page.

Using a combination of includes, HTML, conditional

statements, and loops, you can create complex
variations from page to page with an absolute
minimum of code. Includes become especially
useful when used with functions, as we'll see down
the road.

On to the exciting world of data validation.

Simple Validation

Imagine for a moment that we've got our database nicely laid out and
we're now requesting information from users that will be inserted into the
database. Further, let's imagine that you have a field in your database
waiting for some numeric input, such as a price. Finally, imagine your
application falling over in a screaming heap because some smart aleck put
text in that field. MySQL doesn't want to see text in that portion of your
SQL statement - and it complains bitterly.

What to do? Time to validate.

Validation simply means that we'll examine a piece of data, usually from an
HTML form, and check to make sure that it fits a certain model. This can
range from ensuring that a element is not blank to validating that an
element meets certain criteria (for example, that a numeric value is
stipulated or that an email address contains an @ for an email address).

Validation can be done on the server side or on the client side. PHP is used
for server-side validation, while JavaScript or another client-based scripting
language can provide client-side validation. This article is about PHP, so
we're going to concentrate on the server end of things. But if you're
looking for some ready-made, client-side validation scripts, check out the
Webmonkey code library.

Let's ignore our database for the moment and concentrate on PHP
validation. If you wish, you can add additional fields to our employee
database quite simply by using the MySQL ALTER statement - that is, if
you want to commit to the values that we'll validate.

There are several useful PHP functions we can use to validate our data,
and they range from simple to highly complex. A simple function we could
use might be strlen(), which tells us the length of the variable.

A more complex function would be ereg(), which uses full regular

expression handling for complex queries. I won't delve into the
complexities of regex here, as entire books have been written on the
subject, but I will provide some examples on the next page.

Let's start with a simple example. We'll check to see whether a variable
does or does not exist.

<html>

PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 24 of 32

 <body>

<?php

if ($submit) {

if (!$first || !$last) {

$error = "Sorry! You didn't fill in all the fields!";

} else {

// process form

echo "Thank You!";

if (!$submit || $error) {

echo $error;

?>

<P>

<form method="post" action="<?php echo $PHP_SELF ?>">

FIELD 1: <input type="text" name="first" value="<?php echo

$first ?>">

<br>

FIELD 2: <input type="text" name="last" value="<?php echo

$last ?>">

<br>

<input type="Submit" name="submit" value="Enter

Information">

</form>

<?php

} // end if

?>

</body>

</html>

The keys to this script are the nested conditional statements. The first
checks to see whether the Submit button has been pressed. If it has, it
goes on to check that both the variables $first and $last exist. The ||
symbol means "or" and the ! symbol means "not." We could also rewrite

PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 25 of 32

 the statement to say, "If $first does not exist or $last does not exist, then
set $error to the following."

Next, let's extend things a little by checking to see whether a string is a

certain length. This would be ideal for passwords, since you don't want
some lazy user entering a password of only one or two letters. You'd rather
it be, say, six or more characters.

The function for this is, as you already know, strlen(). It simply returns a
number equal to the number of characters in the variable being tested.
Here, I modified the script above to check the length of $first and $last.

<html>

<body>

<?php

if ($submit) {

if (strlen($first) < 6 || strlen($last) < 6) {

$error = "Sorry! You didn't fill in all the fields!";

} else {

// process form

echo "Thank You!";

if (!$submit || $error) {

echo $error;

?>

<P>

<form method="post" action="<?php echo $PHP_SELF ?>">

FIELD 1: <input type="text" name="first" value="<?php echo

$first ?>">

<br>

FIELD 2: <input type="text" name="last" value="<?php echo

$last ?>">

<br>

<input type="Submit" name="submit" value="Enter

Information">

</form>

<?php

PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 26 of 32

 } // end if

?>

</body>

</html>

Run this script and try entering six or fewer letters to see what happens.
It's simple yet quite effective.

Not-So-Simple Validation

Let's talk a bit about using regular expressions with the ereg() and
eregi() functions. As I said earlier, these can be either quite complex or
very simple, depending on what you need.

Using regular expressions, you can examine a string and intelligently

search for patterns and variations to see whether they match the criteria
you set. The most common of these involves checking whether an email
address is valid (although, of course, there's no fail-safe way of doing
this).

Rather than delve into the mysteries of regular expressions, I'll provide
some examples. You can use the same form we created on the previous
page - just paste in the lines below to see how they work.

First, let's make sure that text only has been entered into a form element.
This regular expression tests true if the user has entered one or more
lowercase characters, from a to z. No numbers are allowed:

if (!ereg("[a-Z]", $first) || !ereg("[a-Z]",

$last)) {

Now, let's extend this expression to check whether the string is four to six
characters in length. Using [[:alpha:]] is an easy way to check for valid
alphabetic characters. The numbers in the braces check for the number of
occurrences. And note that the ^ and $ indicate the beginning and end of
the string.

if (!ereg("^[[:alpha:]]{4,6}$", $first) ||
!ereg("^[[:alpha:]]{4,6}$", $last)) {

Finally, let's build a regular expression that will check an email address'
validity. There's been plenty of discussion about the effectiveness of
checking for email addresses in this way. Nothing's completely foolproof,
but what I have below works pretty well.

I took this gem from the PHP mailing list. It's a great resource - use it. And
yes, this is as scary as it looks.

if (!ereg('^[-!#$%&\'*+\\./0-9=?A-Z^_`a-z{|}~]+'.

PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 27 of 32

 '@'.

'[-!#$%&\'*+\\/0-9=?A-Z^_`a-z{|}~]+\.'.

'[-!#$%&\'*+\\./0-9=?A-Z^_`a-z{|}~]+$', $last)) {

Don't spend too much time looking at this. Just move on to the next page.

Functions

Enjoy that last regex expression? Fun, wasn't it? Wouldn't it be even more
fun to enter that chunk on a dozen different pages that need to process
email addresses?! Think about the joy of finding a typo in that mess - and
doing it a dozen times no less. But of course, there's a better way.

Remember when we talked about include files earlier in this lesson? They'll
allow us to create a piece of code like the email checker and include it
multiple times across several pages. This way, when we want to change
the code, we need edit only one file, not many.

But if we want to get this done, we'll have to use functions.

We've already used functions plenty of times. Every time we query the
database or check the length of a string we're using functions. These
functions are built into PHP. If you're a keen coder, you can extend PHP
with your own customized functions. But that's a bit advanced for this
tutorial. Instead we'll create functions that will reside within our PHP script.

A function is simply a block of code that we pass one or more values to.
The function then processes the information and returns a value. The
function can be as simple or complex as we like, but as long as we can
pass a value in and get one out, we don't really care how complex it is.
That's the beauty of functions.

Functions in PHP behave similarly to functions in C. When we define the

functions, we must specify what values the function can expect to receive.
It's tricky to get a handle on at first, but it prevents weird things from
happening down the road. This is done because the variables inside a
function are known as private variables. That is, they exist only inside the
function. You may, for instance, have a variable in your script called
$myname. If you created a function and expected to use the same $myname
variable (with the same value), it wouldn't work. Alternatively, you could
have the variable $myname in your script and also create another variable
called $myname in your function, and the two would co-exist quite happily
with separate values. I do not recommend doing this, however! When you
come back and edit it six months later, you'll be breaking things left and
right. There are exceptions to this rule as with all things, but that's outside
the scope of this article.

So let's create a function. We'll start simply. We need to give the function a
name and tell it what variables to expect. We also need to define the
function before we call it.

<html>

PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 28 of 32

 <body>

<?php

function addnum($first, $second) {

$newnum = $first + $second;

return $newnum;

echo addnum(4,5);

?>

</body>

</html>

That's it! First, we created our function. Notice how we defined two new
variables, called $first and $second. When we call the function, each
variable is assigned a value based on the order in which it appears in the
list - 4 goes to $first, 5 to $second. Then we simply added the two
numbers together and returned the result. "Return" here simply means to
send the result back. At the end of the script we print the number 9.

Let's create something that's more useful to our database application. How
about something that gracefully handles errors? Try this:

<html>

<body>

<?php

function do_error($error) {

echo "Hmm, looks like there was a problem here...<br>";

echo "The reported error was $error.\n<br>";

echo "Best you get hold of the site admin and let her know.";

die;

if (!$db = @mysql_connect("localhost","user", "password")) {

$db_error = "Could not connect to MySQL Server";

do_error($db_error);

?>

PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 29 of 32

 </body>

</html>

Before running this, try shutting down MySQL or using a bogus username
or password. You'll get a nice, useful error message. Observant readers
will notice the @ symbol in front of mysql_connect(). This suppresses
error messages so that you get the information only from the function.
You'll also see we were able to pass a variable into the function, which was
defined elsewhere.

Remember that I said functions use their own private variables? That was
a little white lie. In fact, you can make variables outside of a function
accessible to the function. You might create a function to query a database
and display a set of results over several pages. You don't want to have to
pass the database connection identifier into the function every time. So in
this situation, you can make connection code available as a global variable.
For example:

<html>

<body>

<?php

function db_query($sql) {

global $db;

$result = mysql_query($sql,$db);

return $result;

$sql = "SELECT * FROM mytable";

$result = db_query($sql);

?>

</body>

</html>

This is a basic function, but the point is that you don't need to send $db
through when you call the function - you can make it available using the
word global. You can define other variables as global in this statement, just
separate the variable names by a comma.

Finally, you can look like a real pro by using optional function variables.
Here, the key is to define the variable to some default in the function, then
when you call the function without specifying a value for the variable, the
default will be adopted. But if you do specify a value, it will take
precedence.

PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 30 of 32

 Confused? For example, when you connect to a database, you nearly
always connect to the same server and you'll likely use the same username
and password. But sometimes you'll need to connect to a different
database. Let's take a look.

<html>

<body>

<?php

function db_connect($host = "localhost", $user="username",

$pass="graeme") {

$db = mysql_connect($host, $username, $password);

return $db;

$old_db = db_connect();

$new_host = "site.com";

$new_db = db_connect($new_host);

?>

</body>

</html>

Isn't that cool? The variables used inside the function were defined when
the function was defined. The first time the function is called, the defaults
are used. The second time, we connect to a new host, but with the same
username and password. Great stuff!

Think about where you could use other functions in your code. You could
use them for data checking, performing routine tasks, and so on. I use
them a lot when processing text for display on a Web page. I can check,
parse, and modify the text to add new lines and escape HTML characters in
one fell swoop.

Now all that's left to do is to impart some words of wisdom.

Closing Advice

When it comes to databasing, there's a lot to learn. If you haven't done it

already, find a good book about database design and learn to put together
a solid database - on any platform. It's an invaluable skill and it will save
you plenty of time and headache in the long run. Also, learn about MySQL.
It's a complex but interesting database with a wealth of useful
documentation. Learn about table structure, data types, and SQL. You can
actually achieve some pretty impressive stuff if you know enough SQL.

Finally, there's PHP. The PHP Web site has nearly everything you need,
from a comprehensive manual to mailing-list archives to code repositories.

PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 31 of 32

 An excellent way to learn about PHP is to study the examples used in the
manual and to check out the code archives. Many of the posted scripts
consist of functions or classes that you can use for free in your own scripts
without having to reinvent the wheel. Additionally, the mailing list is an
excellent spot to check out if you get stuck. The developers themselves
read the list and there are plenty of knowledgeable people there who can
help you along the way.

Good luck and good coding!

Graeme Merrall works in New Zealand for KC Multimedia, an Internet/intranet design

company. While sometimes being forced to use ASP, he enjoys spending his time
coding in PHP, keeping the grass trimmed, and scaring his work mates with song
lyrics repeated out of context.

PHP/MySQL Tutorial Page 32 of 32