Connect to a database

Before you can access data in a database, you must create a connection to the database.

In PHP, this is done with the mysql_connect() function.

Syntax:

mysql_connect(servername,username,password);

Parameter	Description
servername	Optional. Specifies the server to connect to. Default value is “localhost:3306″
username	Optional. Specifies the username to log in with. Default value is the name of the user that owns the server process
password	Optional. Specifies the password to log in with. Default is “”

Example:

In the following example we store the connection in a variable ($con) for later use in the script. The “die” part will be executed if the connection fails:

<?php
$con = mysql_connect(“localhost”,”peter”,”abc123″);
if (!$con)
{
die(‘Could not connect: ‘ . mysql_error());
}

// some code
?>

Closing a Connection:

The connection will be closed automatically when the script ends. To close the connection before, use the mysql_close() function:

<?php
$con = mysql_connect(“localhost”,”peter”,”abc123″);
if (!$con)
{
die(‘Could not connect: ‘ . mysql_error());
}

// some code

mysql_close($con);
?>