- PHP MySQL SELECT Query
- Selecting Data From Database Tables
- Example
- Explanation of Code (Procedural style)
- PHP MySQL Select Data
- Select Data With MySQLi
- Example (MySQLi Object-oriented)
- Example (MySQLi Procedural)
- Example (MySQLi Object-oriented)
- Select Data With PDO (+ Prepared Statements)
- Example (PDO)
- PHP MySQL Use The WHERE Clause
- Select and Filter Data With MySQLi
- Example (MySQLi Object-oriented)
- Example (MySQLi Procedural)
- Example (MySQLi Object-oriented)
- Select Data With PDO (+ Prepared Statements)
- Example (PDO)
PHP MySQL SELECT Query
In this tutorial you’ll learn how to select records from a MySQL table using PHP.
Selecting Data From Database Tables
So far you have learnt how to create database and table as well as inserting data. Now it’s time to retrieve data what have inserted in the preceding tutorial. The SQL SELECT statement is used to select the records from database tables. Its basic syntax is as follows:
Let’s make a SQL query using the SELECT statement, after that we will execute this SQL query through passing it to the PHP mysqli_query() function to retrieve the table data.
Consider our persons database table has the following records:
+----+------------+-----------+----------------------+ | id | first_name | last_name | email | +----+------------+-----------+----------------------+ | 1 | Peter | Parker | peterparker@mail.com | | 2 | John | Rambo | johnrambo@mail.com | | 3 | Clark | Kent | clarkkent@mail.com | | 4 | John | Carter | johncarter@mail.com | | 5 | Harry | Potter | harrypotter@mail.com | +----+------------+-----------+----------------------+
The PHP code in the following example selects all the data stored in the persons table (using the asterisk character ( * ) in place of column name selects all the data in the table).
Example
// Attempt select query execution $sql = "SELECT * FROM persons"; if($result = mysqli_query($link, $sql)) < if(mysqli_num_rows($result) >0)< echo ""; echo ""; echo "id "; echo "first_name "; echo "last_name "; echo "email "; echo " "; while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result))< echo ""; echo "" . $row['id'] . " "; echo "" . $row['first_name'] . " "; echo "" . $row['last_name'] . " "; echo "" . $row['email'] . " "; echo " "; > echo "
"; // Free result set mysqli_free_result($result); > else < echo "No records matching your query were found."; >> else < echo "ERROR: Could not able to execute $sql. " . mysqli_error($link); >// Close connection mysqli_close($link); ?>connect_error); > // Attempt select query execution $sql = "SELECT * FROM persons"; if($result = $mysqli->query($sql))< if($result->num_rows > 0)< echo ""; echo ""; echo "id "; echo "first_name "; echo "last_name "; echo "email "; echo " "; while($row = $result->fetch_array())< echo ""; echo "" . $row['id'] . " "; echo "" . $row['first_name'] . " "; echo "" . $row['last_name'] . " "; echo "" . $row['email'] . " "; echo " "; > echo "
"; // Free result set $result->free(); > else < echo "No records matching your query were found."; >> else< echo "ERROR: Could not able to execute $sql. " . $mysqli->error; > // Close connection $mysqli->close(); ?>setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION); > catch(PDOException $e)< die("ERROR: Could not connect. " . $e->getMessage()); > // Attempt select query execution try< $sql = "SELECT * FROM persons"; $result = $pdo->query($sql); if($result->rowCount() > 0)< echo ""; echo ""; echo "id "; echo "first_name "; echo "last_name "; echo "email "; echo " "; while($row = $result->fetch())< echo ""; echo "" . $row['id'] . " "; echo "" . $row['first_name'] . " "; echo "" . $row['last_name'] . " "; echo "" . $row['email'] . " "; echo " "; > echo "
"; // Free result set unset($result); > else < echo "No records matching your query were found."; >> catch(PDOException $e)< die("ERROR: Could not able to execute $sql. " . $e->getMessage()); > // Close connection unset($pdo); ?>Explanation of Code (Procedural style)
In the example above, the data returned by the mysqli_query() function is stored in the $result variable. Each time mysqli_fetch_array() is invoked, it returns the next row from the result set as an array. The while loop is used to loops through all the rows in the result set. Finally the value of individual field can be accessed from the row either by passing the field index or field name to the $row variable like $row[‘id’] or $row[0] , $row[‘first_name’] or $row[1] , $row[‘last_name’] or $row[2] , and $row[’email’] or $row[3] .
If you want to use the for loop you can obtain the loop counter value or the number of rows returned by the query by passing the $result variable to the mysqli_num_rows() function. This loop counter value determines how many times the loop should run.
PHP MySQL Select Data
The SELECT statement is used to select data from one or more tables:
or we can use the * character to select ALL columns from a table:
To learn more about SQL, please visit our SQL tutorial.
Select Data With MySQLi
The following example selects the id, firstname and lastname columns from the MyGuests table and displays it on the page:
Example (MySQLi Object-oriented)
$servername = «localhost»;
$username = «username»;
$password = «password»;
$dbname = «myDB»;
// Create connection
$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);
// Check connection
if ($conn->connect_error) die(«Connection failed: » . $conn->connect_error);
>
$sql = «SELECT id, firstname, lastname FROM MyGuests»;
$result = $conn->query($sql);
if ($result->num_rows > 0) // output data of each row
while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) echo «id: » . $row[«id»]. » — Name: » . $row[«firstname»]. » » . $row[«lastname»]. «
«;
>
> else echo «0 results»;
>
$conn->close();
?>
Code lines to explain from the example above:
First, we set up an SQL query that selects the id, firstname and lastname columns from the MyGuests table. The next line of code runs the query and puts the resulting data into a variable called $result.
Then, the function num_rows() checks if there are more than zero rows returned.
If there are more than zero rows returned, the function fetch_assoc() puts all the results into an associative array that we can loop through. The while() loop loops through the result set and outputs the data from the id, firstname and lastname columns.
The following example shows the same as the example above, in the MySQLi procedural way:
Example (MySQLi Procedural)
$servername = «localhost»;
$username = «username»;
$password = «password»;
$dbname = «myDB»;
// Create connection
$conn = mysqli_connect($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);
// Check connection
if (!$conn) die(«Connection failed: » . mysqli_connect_error());
>
$sql = «SELECT id, firstname, lastname FROM MyGuests»;
$result = mysqli_query($conn, $sql);
if (mysqli_num_rows($result) > 0) // output data of each row
while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) echo «id: » . $row[«id»]. » — Name: » . $row[«firstname»]. » » . $row[«lastname»]. «
«;
>
> else echo «0 results»;
>
You can also put the result in an HTML table:
Example (MySQLi Object-oriented)
$servername = «localhost»;
$username = «username»;
$password = «password»;
$dbname = «myDB»;
// Create connection
$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);
// Check connection
if ($conn->connect_error) die(«Connection failed: » . $conn->connect_error);
>
$sql = «SELECT id, firstname, lastname FROM MyGuests»;
$result = $conn->query($sql);
if ($result->num_rows > 0) echo «
| ID | Name |
|---|---|
| «.$row[«id»].» | «.$row[«firstname»].» «.$row[«lastname»].» |
«;
> else echo «0 results»;
>
$conn->close();
?>
Select Data With PDO (+ Prepared Statements)
The following example uses prepared statements.
It selects the id, firstname and lastname columns from the MyGuests table and displays it in an HTML table:
Example (PDO)
class TableRows extends RecursiveIteratorIterator <
function __construct($it) <
parent::__construct($it, self::LEAVES_ONLY);
>
function current() return «
«;
>
$servername = «localhost»;
$username = «username»;
$password = «password»;
$dbname = «myDBPDO»;
try $conn = new PDO(«mysql:host=$servername;dbname=$dbname», $username, $password);
$conn->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
$stmt = $conn->prepare(«SELECT id, firstname, lastname FROM MyGuests»);
$stmt->execute();
PHP MySQL Use The WHERE Clause
The WHERE clause is used to extract only those records that fulfill a specified condition.
To learn more about SQL, please visit our SQL tutorial.
Select and Filter Data With MySQLi
The following example selects the id, firstname and lastname columns from the MyGuests table where the lastname is «Doe», and displays it on the page:
Example (MySQLi Object-oriented)
$servername = «localhost»;
$username = «username»;
$password = «password»;
$dbname = «myDB»;
// Create connection
$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);
// Check connection
if ($conn->connect_error) die(«Connection failed: » . $conn->connect_error);
>
$sql = «SELECT id, firstname, lastname FROM MyGuests WHERE lastname=’Doe'»;
$result = $conn->query($sql);
if ($result->num_rows > 0) // output data of each row
while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) echo «id: » . $row[«id»]. » — Name: » . $row[«firstname»]. » » . $row[«lastname»]. «
«;
>
> else echo «0 results»;
>
$conn->close();
?>
Code lines to explain from the example above:
First, we set up the SQL query that selects the id, firstname and lastname columns from the MyGuests table where the lastname is «Doe». The next line of code runs the query and puts the resulting data into a variable called $result.
Then, the function num_rows() checks if there are more than zero rows returned.
If there are more than zero rows returned, the function fetch_assoc() puts all the results into an associative array that we can loop through. The while() loop loops through the result set and outputs the data from the id, firstname and lastname columns.
The following example shows the same as the example above, in the MySQLi procedural way:
Example (MySQLi Procedural)
$servername = «localhost»;
$username = «username»;
$password = «password»;
$dbname = «myDB»;
// Create connection
$conn = mysqli_connect($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);
// Check connection
if (!$conn) die(«Connection failed: » . mysqli_connect_error());
>
$sql = «SELECT id, firstname, lastname FROM MyGuests WHERE lastname=’Doe'»;
$result = mysqli_query($conn, $sql);
if (mysqli_num_rows($result) > 0) // output data of each row
while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result)) echo «id: » . $row[«id»]. » — Name: » . $row[«firstname»]. » » . $row[«lastname»]. «
«;
>
> else echo «0 results»;
>
You can also put the result in an HTML table:
Example (MySQLi Object-oriented)
$servername = «localhost»;
$username = «username»;
$password = «password»;
$dbname = «myDB»;
// Create connection
$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);
// Check connection
if ($conn->connect_error) die(«Connection failed: » . $conn->connect_error);
>
$sql = «SELECT id, firstname, lastname FROM MyGuests WHERE lastname=’Doe'»;
$result = $conn->query($sql);
if ($result->num_rows > 0) echo «
| ID | Name |
|---|---|
| «.$row[«id»].» | «.$row[«firstname»].» «.$row[«lastname»].» |
«;
> else echo «0 results»;
>
$conn->close();
?>
Select Data With PDO (+ Prepared Statements)
The following example uses prepared statements.
It selects the id, firstname and lastname columns from the MyGuests table where the lastname is «Doe», and displays it in an HTML table:
Example (PDO)
class TableRows extends RecursiveIteratorIterator <
function __construct($it) <
parent::__construct($it, self::LEAVES_ONLY);
>
function current() return «
«;
>
$servername = «localhost»;
$username = «username»;
$password = «password»;
$dbname = «myDBPDO»;
try $conn = new PDO(«mysql:host=$servername;dbname=$dbname», $username, $password);
$conn->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
$stmt = $conn->prepare(«SELECT id, firstname, lastname FROM MyGuests WHERE lastname=’Doe'»);
$stmt->execute();