PHP / MySQL Tutorial-..:: Programmer Kingdom ::..

MySQL is the most popular open source database server in existence. On top of that, it is very commonly used in conjunction with PHP scripts to create dynamic and powerful server applications.

PHP / MySQL Tutorial

MySQL is currently the most popular open source database server in existence. On top of that, it is very commonly used in conjunction with PHP scripts to create powerful and dynamic server-side applications.

MySQL has been criticized in the past for not supporting all the features of other popular and more expensive DataBase Management Systems. However, MySQL continues to improve with each release (currently version 5), and it has become widely popular with individuals and businesses of many different sizes.

What is a Database?

A database is a structure that comes in two flavors: a flat database and a relational database. A relational database is much more oriented to the human mind and is often preferred over the gabble-de-gook flat database that are just stored on hard drives like a text file. MySQL is a relational database.

In a relational structured database there are tables that store data. The columns define which kinds of information will be stored in the table. An individual column must be created for each type of data you wish to store (i.e. Age, Weight, Height).

On the other hand, a row contains the actual values for these specified columns. Each row will have 1 value for each and every column. For example a table with columns (Name, Age, Weight-lbs) could have a row with the values (Bob, 65, 165). If all this relational database talk is too confusing, don't despair. We will talk about and show a few examples in the coming lessons.

Why Use a Database?

Databases are most useful when it comes to storing information that fits into logical categories. For example, say that you wanted to store information of all the employees in a company. With a database you can group different parts of your business into separate tables to help store your information logically. Example tables might be: Employees, Supervisors, and Customers. Each table would then contain columns specific to these three areas. To help store information related to each employee, the Employees table might have the following columns: Hire, Date, Position, Age, and Salary.

Learn MySQL

Before you begin this tutorial you should have a basic knowledge of the information covered in our PHP and HTML tutorials.

This tutorial focuses heavily on using MySQL in a PHP environment. It is aimed at teaching those who have web hosts with PHP and MySQL already installed. If you are unsure, please contact your web host.

MySQL Setup Guide

The easiest way to experiment with MySQL and PHP is to purchase some space on a shared web host.

Although you can set up MySQL manually on your home PC, it can be rather difficult for a beginner to do, and would require more than a few lessons! If you think you've got what it takes, or you're just mentally unstable, head on over to MySQL.com for more information on installing MySQL yourself.

Setting Up MySQL in CPanel

There are many different types of control panels that your shared hosting provider may have. This tutorial assumes that you are using the most popular, CPanel.

First, find the link that allows you to administer MySQL. Within CPanel the icon is labeled MySQL Databases. Once there, you will need to do the following before you can start using MySQL.

Helpful Tool - phpMyAdmin!

Also supplied by most hosting services is phpMyAdmin(you can also install it anywhere you want, as it's open source and free). This tool will allow you to view all the MySQL database, tables, and entries, as well as perform SQL queries remotely through a web browser.

Although we will be teaching how to create databases, tables and all other MySQL tasks through PHP, we encourage you to learn about phpMyAdmin. It's easy-to-use interface will allow you to do many common MySQL tasks quickly and easily, saving you many beginner headaches and helping you understand what's going on in a more visual manner.

MySQL Admin

This lesson covers the different options you have available to you for administering your MySQL service after it is successfully installed. If you already have that base covered feel free to skip on to the next lesson.

MySQL Command Line

If you are an old-school programmer that has no need for a graphical user interface, then you can simply use any command line interface to execute MySQL queries.

Those of you with MySQL installed on your Microsoft Windows operating system can reach the command line by going to the Start Menu and choosing "Run...". Type the keyword "cmd" into the text field and press Enter to launch Window's command line interface.

MySQL GUI

With so many free MySQL administration tools available, many developers favor these free Graphical User Interfaces over the command line. The most popular options include:

MySQL phpMyAdmin

As previously mentioned, the very popular phpMyAdmin tool should come with your web hosting plan.

MySQL Administrator

This tool comes from the creators of MySQL, so you can be assured they have a solid understanding of database optimization and stability for power users. There are currently two versions of MySQL Administrator: 1.0 and 1.1. MySQL.com recommends you use 1.1 if your MySQL installation is 4.0, 4.1 or 5.0. Read more about the MySQL Administrator on MySQL.com's web site.

MySQL Navicat

Navicat comes with a 30-day trial so you can play around and see if you feel like dropping the cash for this MySQL administration product. A brief overview of their product Navicat Admin can be found on their website. The cost of this product is around $100.

MySQL Syntax

The great thing about everything you do in MySQL is that the "code" is very easy for humans to read, as opposed to harder programming languages like C or C++. Very few special characters and symbols are required to create a MySQL query, and most queries consist entirely of English words!

Strategies to Learn MySQL

The MySQL language is not as complicated as most programming languages, so the best way to learn is with direct examples. Because this tutorial focuses on the combination of MySQL and PHP, most of the examples are ready for you to copy, paste, and run on your web server.

CAPITALIZATION in MySQL Queries

There are many keywords in MySQL, and a good programming habit when using ANY of these words is to capitalize them. This helps draw them out from the rest of the code and makes them much easier to read. Below is an example of a MySQL query written in PHP that retrieves all the data from a MySQL table named "example".

That line of code is valid PHP, but it also contains valid MySQL. The text that appears between the quotations "SELECT * FROM example", is the MySQL code.

As you probably can tell "SELECT" and "FROM" are the MySQL keywords used in this query. Capitalizing them allows you to tell from a quick glance that this query selects data from a table.

You can view a complete list of MySQL keywords at List of Reserved MySQL Words, but don't worry about memorizing them. You could program relentlessly in MySQL for years without ever using all of the MySQL keywords.

Learn at Your Own Pace

When learning MySQL, it is best to take it one lesson at a time and stop when you feel frustrated. Do not worry if it takes you more than a week to finish this tutorial. If you take the time to progress slowly, you will be much more well-informed about the MySQL database system than if you rushed through it in one sitting.

MySQL Database

A MySQL database is nothing in itself. Rather a MySQL database is a way of organizing a group of tables. If you were going to create a bunch of different tables that shared a common theme, you would group them into one database to make the management process easier.

Creating Your First Database

Most web hosts do not allow you to create a database directly through a PHP script. Instead they require that you use the PHP/MySQL administration tools on the web host control panel to create these databases. Create a database and assign a new user to this database. For all of our beginning examples we will be using the following information:

Note: The table may change in the advanced lessons, but everything else will remain the same!

The server is the name of the server we want to connect to. Because all of our scripts are going to be placed on the server where MySQL is located the correct address is localhost. If the MySQL server was on a different machine from where the script was running, then you would need to enter the correct url (ask your web host for specifics on this).

Your database, table, username, and password do not have to match ours. If you choose a different set of login information, remember to insert your own information when copying the scripts in this tutorial.

Status Check

So far, you should have created a new database and assigned a user to it. You should not have created a table yet. If you are up-to-date, then continue the tutorial. We will be making our first table in an upcoming lesson.

MySQL Connect

Before you can do anything with MySQL in PHP you must first establish a connection to your web host's MySQL database. This is done with the MySQL connect function.

MySQL localhost

If you've been around the internet a while, you'll know that IP addresses are used as identifiers for computers and web servers. In this example of a connection script, we assume that the MySQL service is running on the same machine as the script.

When the PHP script and MySQL are on the same machine, you can use localhost as the address you wish to connect to. localhost is a shortcut to just have the machine connect to itself. If your MySQL service is running at a separate location you will need to insert the IP address or URL in place of localhost. Please contact your web host for more details if localhost does not work.

PHP & MySQL Code:

<?php
mysql_connect("localhost", "admin", "1admin") or die(mysql_error());
echo "Connected to MySQL<br />";
?>

Display:

If you load the above PHP script to your webserver and everything works properly, then you should see "Connected to MySQL" displayed when you view the .php page.

The mysql_connect function takes three arguments. Server, username, and password. In our example above these arguments were:

The "or die(mysql..." code displays an error message in your browser if --you've probably guessed it -- there is an error in processing the connection! Double-check your username, password, or server if you receive this error.

Choosing the Working Database

After establishing a MySQL connection with the code above, you then need to choose which database you will be using with this connection. This is done with the mysql_select_db function.

PHP & MySQL Code:

<?php
mysql_connect("localhost", "admin", "1admin") or die(mysql_error());
echo "Connected to MySQL<br />";
mysql_select_db("test") or die(mysql_error());
echo "Connected to Database";?>

Display:

Status Check

So far you should have made a MySQL connection and chosen the working database. If you are up-to-date then continue the tutorial. We will be making our first table in the next lesson.

MySQL Tables

A MySQL table is completely different than the normal table that you eat dinner on. In MySQL and other database systems, the goal is to store information in an orderly fashion. The table gets this done by making the table up of columns and rows.

The columns specify what the data is going to be, while the rows contain the actual data. Below is how you could imagine a MySQL table. (C = Column, R = Row)

We added the row and column number (R# C#) so that you can see that a row is side-to-side, while a column is up-to-down. In a real MySQL table only the value would be stored, not the R# and C#!

This table has three categories, or "columns", of data: Name, Age, and Weight. This table has four entries, or in other words, four rows.

Create Table MySQL

Before you can enter data (rows) into a table, you must first define what kinds of data will be stored (columns). We are now going to design a MySQL query to summon our table from database land. In future lessons we will be using this table, so be sure to enter this query correctly!

PHP & MySQL Code:

<?php
// Make a MySQL Connection
mysql_connect("localhost", "admin", "1admin") or die(mysql_error());
mysql_select_db("test") or die(mysql_error());
// Create a MySQL table in the selected database
mysql_query("CREATE TABLE example(
id INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, 
PRIMARY KEY(id),
name VARCHAR(30), 
age INT)")
or die(mysql_error());  
echo "Table Created!";
?>

Display:

Wow! That's a lot of code all at once! Let's get down in the dirt and figure this stuff out. We will be going through the code line by line.

'mysql_query ("CREATE TABLE example'

The first part of the mysql_query told MySQL that we wanted to create a new table. The two capitalized words are reserved MySQL keywords.

The word "example" is the name of our table, as it came directly after "CREATE TABLE". It is a good idea to use descriptive names when creating a table, such as: employee_information, contacts, or customer_orders. Clear names will ensure that you will know what the table is about when revisiting it a year after you make it.

'id INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT'

Here we create a column "id" that will automatically increment each time a new entry is added to the table. This will result in the first row in the table having an id = 1, the second row id = 2, the third row id = 3, and so on.

The column "id" is not something that we need to worry about after we create this table, as it is all automatically calculated within MySQL.

Reserved MySQL Keywords:
Here are a few quick definitions of the reserved words used in this line of code:

'PRIMARY KEY (id)'

PRIMARY KEY is used as a unique identifier for the rows. Here we have made "id" the PRIMARY KEY for this table. This means that no two ids can be the same, or else we will run into trouble. This is why we made "id" an auto-incrementing counter in the previous line of code.

'name VARCHAR(30),'

Here we make a new column with the name "name"! VARCHAR stands for "variable character". "Character" means that you can put in any kind of typed information in this column (letters, numbers, symbols, etc). It's "variable" because it can adjust its size to store as little as 0 characters and up to a specified maximum number of characters.

We will most likely only be using this name column to store characters (A-Z, a-z). The number inside the parentheses sets the maximum number of characters. In this case, the max is 30.

'age INT,'

Our third and final column is age, which stores an integer. Notice that there are no parentheses following "INT". MySQL already knows what to do with an integer. The possible integer values that can be stored in an "INT" are -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647, which is more than enough to store someone's age!

'or die(mysql_error());'

This will print out an error if there is a problem in the table creation process.

Your Homework

Using the MySQL administration tool that your web host has, check to see if the table was created correctly. Afterwards, try creating a few of your own, with PHP or with a MySQL administration tool, to be sure that you have gotten the hang of it.

MySQL Insert

When data is put into a MySQL table it is referred to as inserting data. When inserting data it is important to remember the exact names and types of the table's columns. If you try to place a 500 word essay into a column that only accepts integers of size three, you will end up with a nasty error!

Inserting Data Into Your Table

Now that you have created your table, let's put some data into that puppy! Here is the PHP/MySQL code for inserting data into the "example" table we created in the previous lesson.

PHP & MySQL Code:

<?php
// Make a MySQL Connection
mysql_connect("localhost", "admin", "1admin") or die(mysql_error());
mysql_select_db("test") or die(mysql_error());
// Insert a row of information into the table "example"
mysql_query("INSERT INTO example 
(name, age) VALUES('Timmy Mellowman', '23' ) ") 
or die(mysql_error());  
mysql_query("INSERT INTO example 
(name, age) VALUES('Sandy Smith', '21' ) ") 
or die(mysql_error());  
mysql_query("INSERT INTO example 
(name, age) VALUES('Bobby Wallace', '15' ) ") 
or die(mysql_error());  
echo "Data Inserted!";
?>

Display:

This code is much simpler to understand than the create table code, as will be most of the MySQL queries you will learn in the rest of this tutorial. Once again, we will cover the code line by line.

'mysql_query("INSERT INTO example'

Again we are using the mysql_query function. "INSERT INTO" means that data is going to be put into a table. The name of the table we specified to insert data into was "example".

'(name, age) VALUES('Timmy Mellowman', '23' ) ")'

"(name, age)" are the two columns we want to add data into. "VALUES" means that what follows is the data to be put into the columns that we just specified. Here we enter the name Timmy Mellowman for "name", and 23 for "age".

Be sure to note the location and number of apostrophes and parentheses in the PHP code, as this is where a lot of beginner PHP/MySQL programmers run into problems.

Review & Homework

If all goes as well, this .php page will add a three people to the "example" table every time it is run. Be sure to use your MySQL administration program provided by your web host to ensure that the data was inserted into your table correctly.

Be careful not to run this script more than once, otherwise you will be inserting the same people, multiple times. This is called inserting duplicate records and is usually avoided.

MySQL Query

So far we have seen a couple different uses of PHP's mysql_query function and we'll be seeing more of it as nearly all MySQL in PHP is done through the MySQL Query function. We have already created a new table and inserted data into that table. In this lesson we will cover the most common MySQL Query that is used to retrieve information from a database.

Retrieving Data With PHP & MySQL

Usually most of the work done with MySQL involves pulling down data from a MySQL database. In MySQL, data is retrieved with the "SELECT" keyword. Think of SELECT as working the same way as it does on your computer. If you wanted to copy some information in a document, you would first select the desired information, then copy and paste.

Using MySQL SELECT & FROM

Before attempting this lesson, be sure that you have created a table that contains some data, preferably the same data that we had in the MySQL Insert lesson. In this example, we will output the first entry of our MySQL "examples" table to the web browser.

PHP & MySQL Code:

<?php
// Make a MySQL Connection
mysql_connect("localhost", "admin", "1admin") or die(mysql_error());
mysql_select_db("test") or die(mysql_error());
// Retrieve all the data from the "example" table
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM example")
or die(mysql_error());  
// store the record of the "example" table into $row
$row = mysql_fetch_array( $result );
// Print out the contents of the entry 
echo "Name: ".$row['name'];
echo " Age: ".$row['age'];
?>

Display:

This is an example of how to use MySQL's SELECT statement in PHP. Although the MySQL code is simple, printing out the information with PHP is somewhat more involved.

'$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM example")'

When you perform a SELECT query on the database it will return a MySQL Resource that holds everything from your MySQL table, "example". We want to use this Resource in our PHP code, so we need to store it in a variable, $result.

'SELECT * FROM example'

Yes, this is a partial repeat of the same line of code, but we wanted to explain this MySQL statement in greater detail again!

In English, this line of code reads "Select every entry from the table example". The asterisk is the wild card in MySQL which just tells MySQL to include every single column for that table.

'$row = mysql_fetch_array( $result );'

$result is now a MySQL Resource containing data from your MySQL table, "example". Data is being stored in $result, but it is not yet visible to visitors of your website. When we pass $result into the mysql_fetch_array function -- mysql_fetch_array($result) -- an associative array (name, age) is returned.

In our MySQL table "example," there are only two fields that we care about: name and age. These names are the keys to extracting the data from our associative array. To get the name we use $row['name'] and to get the age we use $row['age'].

PHP is case sensitive when you reference MySQL column names, so be sure to use capitalization in your PHP code that matches the MySQL column names!

Continuing the Example

In this lesson, we learned how to get the first entry from a MySQL table and output to the browser using PHP. In the next lesson we will see how to retrieve every entry of a table and put it into a nicely formatted table. However, we recommend that you first understand the PHP and MySQL code in this lesson before proceeding.

MySQL Fetch Array

MySQL doesn't have a Fetch Array function. mysql_fetch_array is actually a PHP function that allows you to access data stored in the result returned from a successful mysql_query. If you have been jumping around our MySQL Tutorial then you would have already seen this function popping up all over the place.

This lesson will teach you how and why to use mysql_fetch_array in your PHP Scripts.

mysql_fetch_array: Why Use It?

Do you know what is returned when you used the mysql_query function to query a MySQL database? It isn't something you can directly manipulate, that is for sure. Here is a sample SELECT query of a table we created in the MySQL Create Table lesson.

PHP and MySQL Code:

<?php
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM example");
?>

The value that mysql_query returns and stores into $result is a special type of data, it is a MySQL Resource. Additional PHP functions are required to extract the data from this Resource.

A Row of Data

The mysql_fetch_array function takes a MySQL query resource as an argument ($result) and returns the first row of data returned by the mysql_query. Our table example basically looks like the table below.

example MySQL Table:

The first row of data in this table is "Timmy Mellowman" and "23". When we fetch an array from our MySQL Resource $result it should have Timmy's name and age in it.

Getting a Row of Data using mysql_fetch_array

mysql_fetch_array returns the first row in a MySQL Resource in the form of an associative array. The columns of the MySQL Result can be accessed by using the column names of the table. In our table example these are: name and age. Here is the code to print out the first MySQL Result row.

PHP and MySQL Code:

<?php
// Make a MySQL Connection
$query = "SELECT * FROM example"; 
$result = mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error());
$row = mysql_fetch_array($result) or die(mysql_error());
echo $row['name']. " - ". $row['age'];
?>

Display:

This is just what we expected would happen! Now, the cool thing about mysql_fetch_array is that you can use it again on the same MySQL Resource to return the second, third, fourth and so on rows. You can keep doing this until the MySQL Resource has reached the end (which would be three times in our example).

Sounds like an awfully repetitive task. It would be nice if we could get all our results from a MySQL Resource in an easy to do script.

Fetch Array While Loop

As we have said, the mysql_fetch_array function returns an associative array, but it also returns FALSE if there are no more rows to return! Using a PHP While Loop we can use this information to our advantage.

If we place the statement "$row = mysql_fetch_array()" as our while loop's conditional statement we will accomplish two things:

Now that we know what we need to do and how to go about doing it, the code pretty much writes itself, so let's move on to the next lesson. Just kidding! Here is the code that will print out all the rows of our MySQL Resource.

PHP and MySQL Code:

<?php
// Make a MySQL Connection
$query = "SELECT * FROM example"; 
$result = mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error());
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)){
echo $row['name']. " - ". $row['age'];
echo "<br />";
}
?>

Display:

And there we have all the rows from our example table! You could apply this script to any MySQL table as long as you change both the table name in the query and the column names that we have in the associative array.

MySQL Select

You have seen two types of MySQL queries thus far: the query which we used to create a table and the query we used to insert data into our newly created table. The query in this lesson is SELECT, which is used to get information from the database, so that its data can be used in our PHP script.

Retrieving Information from MySQL

Finally, we get to use the data in our MySQL database to create a dynamic PHP page. In this example we will select everything in our table "example" and put it into a nicely formatted HTML table. Remember, if you don't understand the HTML or PHP code, be sure to check out the HTML and/or PHP Tutorial(s).

PHP & MySQL Code:

<?php
// Make a MySQL Connection
mysql_connect("localhost", "admin", "1admin") or die(mysql_error());
mysql_select_db("test") or die(mysql_error());
// Get all the data from the "example" table
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM example") 
or die(mysql_error());  
echo "<table border='1'>";
echo "<tr> <th>Name</th> <th>Age</th> </tr>";
// keeps getting the next row until there are no more to get
while($row = mysql_fetch_array( $result )) {
// Print out the contents of each row into a table
echo "<tr><td>"; 
echo $row['name'];
echo "</td><td>"; 
echo $row['age'];
echo "</td></tr>"; 
} 
echo "</table>";
?>

Display:

Because we only had three entries in our table, three rows appeared above. If you added more entries to your database's table, then you would see each additional row appear in the above table.

'$result = mysql_query...'

When you select items from a database using mysql_query, the data is returned as a MySQL result. Since we want to use this data in our table we need to store it in a variable. $result now holds the result from our mysql_query.

'SELECT * FROM example'

In English, this line of code reads "Select everything from the table example". The asterisk is the wild card in MySQL which just tells MySQL to retrieve every single field from the table.

'while($row = mysql_fetch_array( $result )'

The mysql_fetch_array function gets the next-in-line associative array from a MySQL result. By putting it in a while loop it will continue to fetch the next array until there is no next array to fetch. This function can be called as many times as you want, but it will return FALSE when the last associative array has already been returned.

By placing this function within the conditional statement of the while loop, we can kill two birds with one stones.

In our MySQL table "example" there are only two fields that we care about: name and age. These fields are the keys to extracting the data from our associative array. To get the name we use $row['name'] and to get the age we use $row['age'].

Practice What You Have Learned

Use the query that we have provided or make a new one and try putting it into a formatted HTML table. It might be useful to try out other methods of HTML formatting as well. See which one you like best!

By now you should be starting to understand how powerful PHP and MySQL are when used together. The tasks that you can complete with MySQL and PHP would be nearly impossible to do by hand in HTML. Imagine trying to create an HTML table of 6000 entries without using a MySQL database and a PHP while loop!

MySQL Where

In a previous lesson we did a SELECT query to get all the data from our "example" table. If we wanted to select only certain entries of our table, then we would use the keyword WHERE.

WHERE lets you specify requirements that entries must meet in order to be returned in the MySQL result.

Being Selective With Your MySQL Selection

There are three entries in our "example" table: Tim, Sandy, and Bobby. To select Sandy only we could either specify Sandy's age (21) or we could use her name (Sandy Smith). In the future there may be other people who are 21, so we will use her name as our requirement.

WHERE is used in conjuction with a mathematical statement. In our example we will want to select all rows that have the string "Sandy Smith" in the "names" column (mathematically: {name column} = "Sandy Smith"). Here's how to do it.

PHP & MySQL Code:

<?php
// Make a MySQL Connection
mysql_connect("localhost", "admin", "1admin") or die(mysql_error());
mysql_select_db("test") or die(mysql_error());
// Get a specific result from the "example" table
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM example
WHERE name='Sandy Smith'") or die(mysql_error());  
// get the first (and hopefully only) entry from the result
$row = mysql_fetch_array( $result );
// Print out the contents of each row into a table 
echo $row['name']." - ".$row['age'];
?>

Display:

MySQL Wildcard Usage '%'

If you wanted to select every person in the table who was in their 20's, how could you go about doing it? With the tools you have now, you could make 10 different queries, one for each age 20, 21, 22...but that seems like more work than we need to do.

In MySQL there is a "wildcard" character '%' that can be used to search for partial matches in your database. The '%' tells MySQL to ignore the text that would normally appear in place of the wildcard. For example '2%' would match the following: 20, 25, 2000000, 2avkldj3jklsaf, and 2!

MySQL Query WHERE With Wildcard

To solve our problem from before, selecting everyone who is their 20's from or MySQL table, we can utilize wildcards to pick out all strings starting with a 2.

PHP & MySQL Code:

<?php
// Connect to MySQL
// Insert a row of information into the table "example"
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM example WHERE age LIKE '2%' ") 
or die(mysql_error());  
// keeps getting the next row until there are no more to get
while($row = mysql_fetch_array( $result )) {
// Print out the contents of each row
echo $row['name']." - ".$row['age']. "<br />";
} 
?>

Display:

You can use this wildcard at the beginning, middle, and end of the string. Experiment with it so you can see for yourself how powerful this little trick can be.

Note: The wildcard was used for example purposes only. If you really wanted to explicilty select people who are in their 20's you would use greater than 19 and less than 30 to define the 20's range. Using a wildcard in this example would select unwanted cases, like a 2 year old and your 200 year old great-great-great-grandparents.

MySQL Order By

It would be nice to be able to make MySQL results easier to read and understand. A common way to do this in the real world is to order a big list of items by name or amount. The way to order your result in MySQL is to use the ORDER BY statement.

What ORDER BY does is take the a column name that you specify and sort it in alphabetical order (or numeric order if you are using numbers). Then when you use mysql_fetch_array to print out the result, the values are already sorted and easy to read.

Ordering is also used quite frequently to add additional functionality to webpages that use any type of column layout. For example, some forums let you sort by date, thread title, post count, view count, and more.

Sorting a MySQL Query - ORDER BY

Let's use the same query we had in MySQL Select and modify it to ORDER BY the person's age. The code from MySQL Select looked like...

PHP & MySQL Code:

<?php
// Make a MySQL Connection
mysql_connect("localhost", "admin", "1admin") or die(mysql_error());
mysql_select_db("test") or die(mysql_error());
// Get all the data from the "example" table
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM example") 
or die(mysql_error());  
echo "<table border='1'>";
echo "<tr> <th>Name</th> <th>Age</th> </tr>";
// keeps getting the next row until there are no more to get
while($row = mysql_fetch_array( $result )) {
// Print out the contents of each row into a table
echo "<tr><td>"; 
echo $row['name'];
echo "</td><td>"; 
echo $row['age'];
echo "</td></tr>"; 
} 
echo "</table>";
?>

Display:

What we need to do is add on to the existing MySQL statement "SELECT * FROM example" to include our new ordering requirement. When you choose to order a column, be sure that your ORDER BY appears after the SELECT ... FROM part of the MySQL statement.

PHP & MySQL Code:

<?php
// Make a MySQL Connection
mysql_connect("localhost", "admin", "1admin") or die(mysql_error());
mysql_select_db("test") or die(mysql_error());
// Get all the data from the "example" table
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM example ORDER BY age") 
or die(mysql_error());  
echo "<table border='1'>";
echo "<tr> <th>Name</th> <th>Age</th> </tr>";
// keeps getting the next row until there are no more to get
while($row = mysql_fetch_array( $result )) {
// Print out the contents of each row into a table
echo "<tr><td>"; 
echo $row['name'];
echo "</td><td>"; 
echo $row['age'];
echo "</td></tr>"; 
} 
echo "</table>";
?>

Display:

Presto! We have an ordered MySQL result! Notice that we didn't have to change any of our PHP code. Remember this whenever you're editing a PHP script that uses MySQL. Sometimes it may be easier to just tweak your MySQL query instead of trying to mess around in PHP.

MySQL Joins

Thus far we have only been getting data from one table at a time. This is fine for simple tasks, but in most real world MySQL usage you will often need to get data from multiple tables in a single query.

The act of joining in MySQL refers to smashing two or more tables into a single table. This means everything you have learned so far can be applied after you've created this new, joined table.

MySQL Join Table Setup

We like to show examples and code before we explain anything in detail, so here is how you would combine two tables into one using MySQL. The two tables we will be using relate to a families eating habits.

family Table:

food Table:

The important thing to note here is that the column Position contains information that can tie these two tables together. In the "family" table, the Position column contains all the members of the family and their respective ages. In the "food" table the Position column contains the family member who enjoys that dish.

It's only through a shared column relationship such as this that tables can be joined together, so remember this when creating tables you wish to have interact with each other.

MySQL Join Simple Example

Let's imagine that we wanted to SELECT all the dishes that were liked by a family member. If you remember from the previous lesson, this is a situation when we need to use the WHERE clause. We want to SELECT all the dishes WHERE a family member likes it.

We will be performing a generic join of these two tables using the Position column from each table as the connector.

Note: This example assumes you have created the MySQL tables "food" and "family". If you do not have either of them created, you can either create them using our MySQL Create Table lesson or do it manually yourself.

PHP and MySQL Code:

<?php
// Make a MySQL Connection
// Construct our join query
$query = "SELECT family.Position, food.Meal ".
"FROM family, food ".
"WHERE family.Position = food.Position";
$result = mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error());
// Print out the contents of each row into a table 
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)){
echo $row['Position']. " - ". $row['Meal'];
echo "<br />";
}
?>

The statement "WHERE family.Position = food.Position" will restrict the results to the rows where the Position exists in both the "family" and "food" tables.

Display:

Those are the results of our PHP script. Let's analyze the tables to make sure we agree with these results.

Compare the Tables:

Our results show that there were three meals that were liked by family members. And by manually perusing the tables it looks like there were indeed three meals liked by family members.

Note: This is a very simple example of a join. If you do not understand it yet do not despair. Joins are a very hard concept to grasp for beginning MySQL developers.

MySQL LEFT JOIN

In the previous lesson, Mysql Joins we learned how to do a basic join of two tables. This lesson will teach you how to do a specialized join: left join.

MySQL LEFT JOIN Explanation

How is a LEFT JOIN different from a normal join? First of all, the syntax is quite different and somewhat more complex. Besides looking different, the LEFT JOIN gives extra consideration to the table that is on the left.

Being "on the left" simply refers to the table that appears before the LEFT JOIN in our SQL statement. Nothing tricky about that.

This extra consideration to the left table can be thought of as special kind of preservation. Each item in the left table will show up in a MySQL result, even if there isn't a match with the other table that it is being joined to.

MySQL Join and LEFT JOIN Differences

MySQL family and food Tables:

We executed a simple query that selected all meals that were liked by a family member with this simple join query:

Simplified MySQL Query:

SELECT food.Meal, family.Position 
FROM family, food  
WHERE food.Position = family.Position

Result:

When we decide to use a LEFT JOIN in the query instead, all the family members be listed, even if they do not have a favorite dish in our food table.

MySQL LEFT JOIN Example

The code below is the exact same as the code in the previous lesson, except the LEFT JOIN has now been added to the query. Let's see if the results are what we expected.

PHP and MySQL Code:

<?php
// Make a MySQL Connection
// Construct our join query
$query = "SELECT family.Position, food.Meal ".
"FROM family LEFT JOIN food ".
"ON family.Position = food.Position"; 
$result = mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error());
// Print out the contents of each row into a table 
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)){
echo $row['Position']. " - ". $row['Meal'];
echo "<br />";
}
?>

Display:

Success! The LEFT JOIN preserved every family member, including those who don't yet have a favorite meal in the food table! Please feel free to play around with LEFT JOIN until you feel like you have a solid grasp of it. This stuff isn't easy!

MySQL Update

Imagine that you have a MySQL table that holds the information of all the employees in your company. One of the columns in this table is called "Seniority" and it holds an integer value of how many months an employee has worked at your company. Unfortunately for you, your job is to update these numbers every month.

You may be thinking that you'll have to open up your MySQL administration tool and edit each entry by hand. That would take hours. On the other hand, you could master MySQL and have an automated script that you run each month to get the job done for you.

In this lesson you will learn how to replace the existing data of a MySQL table with freshly supplied up-to-date data using the UPDATE MySQL query.

MySQL Update Example

Once again we will be working with the data from a previous example. Sandy has just had a birthday and she now 22 years old. Our job now is to update her age using MySQL commands like UPDATE, SET, and WHERE.

PHP & MySQL Code:

<?php
// Connect to MySQL
// Get Sandy's record from the "example" table
$result = mysql_query("UPDATE example SET age='22' WHERE age='21'") 
or die(mysql_error());  
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM example WHERE age='22'") 
or die(mysql_error());  
// get the first (and hopefully only) entry from the result
$row = mysql_fetch_array( $result );
echo $row['name']." - ".$row['age']. "<br />";
?>

Display:

Now it is important to note that this query would have updated ALL records that had an age of 21 to the new age of 22. In a table where Sandy is not the only entry, this may become a problem, and a more sophisticated solution would be necessary.

MySQL Delete

Maintenance is a very common task that is necessary for keeping MySQL tables current. From time to time, you may even need to delete items from your database. Some potential reasons for deleting a record from MySQL include when: someone deletes a post from a forum, an employee leaves a company, or you're trying to destroy your records before the federalies come!

MySQL DELETE Example

The DELETE query is very similar to the UPDATE Query in the previous lesson. We need to choose a table, tell MySQL to perform the deletion, and provide the requirements that a record must have for it to be deleted.

Say we want to delete the youngest employee from our previously created table because he has to go back to school. This is how we do it.

PHP & MySQL Code:

<?php
// Connect to MySQL
// Delete Bobby from the "example" MySQL table
mysql_query("DELETE FROM example WHERE age='15'") 
or die(mysql_error());  
?>

It is important to note that this query would have deleted ALL records that had an age of 15. Since Bobby was the only 15 year old this was not a problem.

MySQL DELETE Tips

Before performing a large delete on a database, be sure to back up the table/database in case your script takes off a little more than desired. Test your delete queries before even thinking about using them on your table. As long as you take caution when using this powerful query you should not run into any problems.

MySQL Database Backups

If you're storing anything in MySQL databases that you do not want to lose, chances are you should be doing weekly or even daily backups. Depending on what you're using your databases for -- be it to store forum messages, employee information, or your spending information -- you are going to need to choose a backup schedule that meets your needs.

You may or may not know that MySQL databases are just files that are stored on your web server. This fact makes the whole backup and restore process extremely simple and painless once you have figured out how to do it.

Different Ways to Get That Backup Done

There are many paths you can take to create a MySQL backup. However, no matter which application, control panel tool, or SSH script you use, all of the backups will fit into two types of backups: a dump or raw backup.

MySQL Dump

A MySQL dump is a bit slower than a raw backup because it creates all the SQL queries required to create the tables of that database, as well as all the insert queries required to place the information back into the database's tables.

If you want to perform the mysql dump manually, without the assistance of your hosts control panel, then run SSH to your web server and do the following (taken from MySql.com):

If you were to open up a MySQL dump file you would see a slew of SQL queries that you would probably be able to understand (if you've already read through this whole tutorial!).

MySQL Raw Backup

A MySQL Raw Backup is quicker because it does not translate the contents of the database into human readable SQL queries. However, not many control panels support this type of backup, so do not worry if your hosting provider doesn't have this option set up for you.

MySQL Backup in Control Panel cPanel

cPanel is the most widely used web host control panel at this time, so we thought it would make sense to provide a walkthrough specifically for cPanel.

From the application selection screen click "Backup". This will bring you to the backup application that allows you to generate and download complete backups for your site.

To back up a database individually, look for the title "Download a SQL Database Backup" or something similar. Below that title should be a listing of every database that you have created. Simply click on the name of the database you want to backup and save it to your computer.

That's it! Now just be sure that you have a regular backup schedule, just in case the unthinkable happens and your web host loses all your database information!

MySQL GROUP BY - Aggregate Functions

After you have mastered the basics of MySQL, it's time to take the next step and take on Aggregate Functions. Before we talk about what they are, let's review the definition of aggregate, as it relates to MySQL:

With this type of wording, we can assume that MySQL's aggregate functions are something that will be very top-level, or in other words, the opposite of detailed.

The most common types of aggregate functions let you find out things like the minimum, maximum and even the average of a "grouped" set of data. The trick to understanding aggregate functions is often understanding what kind of data is being grouped and analyzed.

MySQL GROUP BY - The Data

Before we can start throwing around these fancy functions, let's build an appropriate table that has enough data in it to be meaningful to us. Below is the SQL for our "products" table. You can either run this SQL statement in your MySQL administrator software or use MySQL to execute the queries (i.e. create table, then each of the records).

Products Table:

GROUP BY - Creating Your First "Group"

Imagine that our store was running an advertisement in the newspaper and we wanted to have a "bargain basement" section that listed the lowest price of each product type. In this case we would be "grouping" by the product type and finding the minimum price of each group.

Our query needs to return two columns: product type and minimum price. Additionally, we want to use the type column as our group. The SELECT statement we are about to use will look different because it includes an aggregate function, MIN, and the GROUP BY statement, but otherwise it isn't any different than a normal SELECT statement.