MySQL and PHP

6.5.40 mysql_query

Copyright 1997-2021 the PHP Documentation Group.

Warning

This extension was deprecated in PHP 5.5.0, and it was removed in PHP 7.0.0. Instead, the MySQLi or PDO_MySQL extension should be used. See also MySQL: choosing an API guide and related FAQ for more information. Alternatives to this function include:

mysqli_query
PDO::query

Description

mixed mysql_query(string query,
                  resource link_identifier= =NULL);

mysql_query sends a unique query (multiple queries are not supported) to the currently active database on the server that's associated with the specified link_identifier.

Parameters

query

An SQL query

The query string should not end with a semicolon. Data inside the query should be properly escaped.

link_identifier

The MySQL connection. If the link identifier is not specified, the last link opened by mysql_connect is assumed. If no such link is found, it will try to create one as if mysql_connect had been called with no arguments. If no connection is found or established, an E_WARNING level error is generated.

Return Values

For SELECT, SHOW, DESCRIBE, EXPLAIN and other statements returning resultset, mysql_query returns a resource on success, or false on error.

For other type of SQL statements, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, DROP, etc, mysql_query returns true on success or false on error.

The returned result resource should be passed to mysql_fetch_array, and other functions for dealing with result tables, to access the returned data.

Use mysql_num_rows to find out how many rows were returned for a SELECT statement or mysql_affected_rows to find out how many rows were affected by a DELETE, INSERT, REPLACE, or UPDATE statement.

mysql_query will also fail and return false if the user does not have permission to access the table(s) referenced by the query.

Examples

Example 6.46 Invalid Query

The following query is syntactically invalid, so mysql_query fails and returns false. 

<?php
$result = mysql_query('SELECT * WHERE 1=1');
if (!$result) {
    die('Invalid query: ' . mysql_error());
}

?>


Example 6.47 Valid Query

The following query is valid, so mysql_query returns a resource. 

<?php
// This could be supplied by a user, for example
$firstname = 'fred';
$lastname  = 'fox';

// Formulate Query
// This is the best way to perform an SQL query
// For more examples, see mysql_real_escape_string()
$query = sprintf("SELECT firstname, lastname, address, age FROM friends 
    WHERE firstname='%s' AND lastname='%s'",
    mysql_real_escape_string($firstname),
    mysql_real_escape_string($lastname));

// Perform Query
$result = mysql_query($query);

// Check result
// This shows the actual query sent to MySQL, and the error. Useful for debugging.
if (!$result) {
    $message  = 'Invalid query: ' . mysql_error() . "\n";
    $message .= 'Whole query: ' . $query;
    die($message);
}

// Use result
// Attempting to print $result won't allow access to information in the resource
// One of the mysql result functions must be used
// See also mysql_result(), mysql_fetch_array(), mysql_fetch_row(), etc.
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
    echo $row['firstname'];
    echo $row['lastname'];
    echo $row['address'];
    echo $row['age'];
}

// Free the resources associated with the result set
// This is done automatically at the end of the script
mysql_free_result($result);
?>


See Also

mysql_connect
mysql_error
mysql_real_escape_string
mysql_result
mysql_fetch_assoc
mysql_unbuffered_query

MySQL Documentation Library