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Php/Mysql Cheat Sheet

This document provides a quick reference guide for key PHP and MySQL features: - PHP code is delimited by <?php ?> tags, and variables are prefixed with $ - Information can be outputted and variables printed using echo or print - Form data is accessible via the $_POST and $_GET arrays - MySQL is connected to using mysql_connect and mysql_select_db - Queries are performed with mysql_query and results fetched using mysql_fetch_array

Uploaded by

KAMAL BOUBRIK
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
54 views

Php/Mysql Cheat Sheet

This document provides a quick reference guide for key PHP and MySQL features: - PHP code is delimited by <?php ?> tags, and variables are prefixed with $ - Information can be outputted and variables printed using echo or print - Form data is accessible via the $_POST and $_GET arrays - MySQL is connected to using mysql_connect and mysql_select_db - Queries are performed with mysql_query and results fetched using mysql_fetch_array

Uploaded by

KAMAL BOUBRIK
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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PHP/MySQL Cheat Sheet

There is a lot to learn about the interaction between PHP and MySQL.
But the basic tools can be covered relatively quickly. This handout is
designed to be a quick-reference guide for the most important features of
PHP and MySQL.
Identifying PHP code
PHP code intermixed with HTML is delimited by the tags <?php ... ?>. PHP
statements end with a semi-colon.

Variables
Variables are simply names used in PHP to store values. They are indicated by a string
preceded by a dollar sign. For instance, the following statement assigns the value
“CSC111” to the variable $course_number:
$course_number = “CSC111”;
Variables in PHP do not have to be declared before they can be used.

Output
Information is written to the browser window in PHP using the echo or print
command. The two commands are interchangeable. HTML tags mixed in with the
output to be printed are interpreted appropriately. The period character (“.”) is used to
concatenate parts of output strings together. For example:
echo “The sum of ” . $num1 . “ and ” . $num2 . “ is ” . $sum . “.”;
As long as you use double-quotes, you can simplify statements like this by including the
variables within the quotes. Then the values of the variable will replace the variables
themselves. For instance, the statement:
echo “The sum of $num1 and $num2 is $sum”;
will print
The sum of 3 and 5 is 8
assuming $num1=3, $num2=5 and $sum=8.

Getting Information from HTML Forms


Extracting information from HTML forms is very easy in PHP. If a PHP page is given as
the action to be carried out when a form is submitted, that page can access the fields of
the form from a special global array simply by using the field names of the form as
indices. For instance, if your form has fields called FirstName and LastName, the
PHP page that processes the form can access them using $_POST["FirstName"] and
$_POST["LastName"], which will contain whatever the user entered into the
corresponding fields in the form. (NOTE: This assumes that the POST method was used
in the form. Use $_GET if the GET method was used instead. See below for more.)

Getting Information from the URL


Using the GET method rather than the POST method with your form will cause all of the
form values to be appended to the end of the URL of the PHP page as a querystring when
the form is submitted. For instance:
http://cs.furman.edu/csc111.php?fName=Joe&lName=Cool
PHP handles querystrings just as it handles form input sent by the POST method – it
simply places the values in a different global array. So, given the URL above, the page
CSC-111: Introduction to Information Technology page 2

cs19.php would have variables $_GET["fName"] and $_GET["lName"] with


values “Joe” and “Cool” respectively.

Connecting to a MySQL Database


PHP provides a rich collection of built-in functions for database access. Once again, you
basically just have to remember a few simple lines of code to accomplish specific tasks.
To connect to a MySQL database, use the functions mysql_connect and
mysql_select_db, as in the following example:
$linkID = mysql_connect("localhost","userID","userpass");
mysql_select_db("databaseName", $linkID);
The first line is used essentially to log into your MySQL account on the server. Your
connection information is stored in a PHP variable (called “linkID” in this example) The
next line makes the connection to a specific database in your account. (Remember that
you can have several.) After you’ve worked with your database, you must be sure to
close this connection:
mysql_close($linkID);
It is a good idea to include code that will alert you if any of these tasks fail to complete.
An easy way to do that is to use the build-in PHP die() function, like this:
$linkID = mysql_connect("localhost","userID","userpass")
or die ("Could not connect: " . mysql_error());
If the connection is successful, this command will “short circuit” and the die() function
won’t run at all. If the connection fails, however, execution will stop and a (hopefully)
helpful error message will be printed.

Getting Information Out of the Database


This is where you put your knowledge of SQL to use. Once you have an active
connection to your database, you can basically do anything you like with it. The key is
understanding SQL commands. Recall that searching the database for information to
display involves the SELECT command. It also involves the PHP functions
mysql_query and mysql_fetch_array. Here’s how it works:
$SQL = “SELECT * FROM tableName WHERE fieldname = ‘foo’”;
$allValues = mysql_query($SQL, $linkID);
The function mysql_query selects the requested records from the database and stores
them in the variable $allValues in something called a resource, which is basically a
two-dimensional array.

It is good PHP programming practice to check to make sure a query was successful. This
can be done with the following code:
if (!$allValues) {
echo “Could not execute query ($SQL): “ . mysql_error();
exit;
}
The die() function could also be used here, as in the previous example.

If the query was unsuccessful, the variable $allValues will contain the value FALSE.
So this will print an error message, the original query, and an explanation of the error in
the event of a failed query. It will then terminate the application.

Keene/Treu, 2001
CSC-111: Introduction to Information Technology page 3

If the query is successful, there is a default pointer that at any given moment is pointing
to one of the retrieved records in the resource (initially the first one). Consider the
following line of code:
$thisValue = mysql_fetch_array($allValues)
The function mysql_fetch_array grabs a single row of data from the
$allValues variable and stores it in $thisValue. Now you can access the data
from the record just by using the original field names. For instance:
echo $thisValue[“field1”];
echo $thisValue[“field2”];
The nice thing about the function mysql_fetch_array is that it automatically moves
the pointer to the next record. It also returns a TRUE/FALSE value that lets you know
when it has reached the end of the data. This is useful for looping through data. For
instance:
$allValues = mysql_query(“SELECT * FROM Grades”, $linkID);
while ($thisValue = mysql_fetch_array($allValues))
{
echo $thisValue[“field1”] . “ ” . $thisValue[“field2”];
echo “<BR>”;
}

There are other useful alternatives to mysql_fetch_array. I encourage you to look


up the details of mysql_fetch_row and mysql_fetch_object, for instance.

An alternative that I frequently use is mysql_fetch_assoc. It works like this:


while ($thisValue = mysql_fetch_assoc($allValues))
{
extract($thisValue);
print "<tr>\n";
print “<td>$field1</td><td>$field2</td>”;
print "</tr>\n";
}

The extract function pulls the values of each row out into variables named after the
actual field names. Try this alternate version if you like.

Changing/Updating the Database


Once you’ve got SELECT down, this is easy. To add to, delete from, or update a record
in the database, just use the appropriate SQL command as discussed in class, or covered
in the sqlcourse.com tutorials (from the class web site). For example:
mysql_query(“DELETE FROM tableName WHERE fieldName = ‘foo’”, $linkID);

Keene/Treu, 2001

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