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Inserting data
Inserting data is much more simple than selecting it, because you don’t need to use as many variables.  In fact, you just need to use one line of code (pretty much) and for this we use the mySQL command:

INSERT INTO TableName(Column1,Column2,Column3) VALUES(‘data1’,’data2’,’data3’)

This may look advanced but its actually extremely simple!   TableName obviously represents the name of the table you want to fill with the new data. Column1, Column2 and Column3 are just there as examples, and you can  you replace them with the name of the columns in your table at leisure.  Remember that if you don’t include a column, mySQL just leaves that cell blank on the new entry.   The values part of the above command includes the data. “data1” goes into “Column1”, “data2” into “Column2”, etc.

So let’s put this into PHP. We are just going to insert one string of data into our one column, bringing us up to a total of 5 rows.

<? mysql_connect(“localhost”,”joeblog”,”opensesame”) or die(mysql_error()); mysql_select_db(“joes_database”); $ourdata = “the data we are going to put into the database”; mysql_query(“INSERT INTO JoeBlog (Joe) VALUES(‘$ourdata’)”) or die(mysql_error()); echo ‘If mysql_error() didn’t spit anything at you and you are reading this message then the insert worked fine!’; ?>

Now we get on to the easy commands...

Deleting and Editing data
There really isn’t much explaining to do on the subject of these two - they are just the same as INSERT, except with a different command:

UPDATE TableName SET ColumnName = Value WHERE Row = id

E.g. UPDATE JoeBlog SET Joe = ‘the data we are going to put into the database but its now edited’ WHERE id = 5

Our table doesn’t have an ID field but we’re going to pretend it does (you can, in fact, use any field you like). ID fields just give each row a unique ID number, which are quite often automatically incremented.  They sometimes make database structures a little easier for humans to comprehend, and ensures that the data in only ONE column is updated by the UPDATE command.

I’ll tie the example in with the DELETE command’s example. Delete has the format:

DELETE FROM TableName WHERE id = Value

E.g. DELETE FROM JoeBlog WHERE id = 5

The two examples above effectively edit the values we entered into our database earlier, and then delete it. Here's the combined PHP code for these operations:

<? mysql_connect(“localhost”,”joeblog”,”opensesame”) or die(mysql_error()); mysql_select_db(“joes_database”); mysql_query(“UPDATE JoeBlog SET Joe = ‘the data we are going to put into the database but its now edited’ WHERE id = 5”) or die(mysql_error()); echo ‘If you are reading this then the data has been successfully edited. Remember that our id field is imaginary at the moment but when you make your own table you will include the id field.’; mysql_query(“DELETE FROM JoeBlog WHERE id = 5”) or die(mysql_error)); echo ‘If you are reading this then the data has been successfully deleted.’; ?>

Well, that's it for my introduction to mySQL/PHP.  This tutorial was not aimed to inform you on how to set up mySQL tables (that may come at a later stage), but simply explain how to use them.  Given the ease of setting up databases, though, a tutorial on the absolute basics would be like teaching your granny to suck eggs.

If you have any questions regarding this tutorial (written exclusively for BioRUST) then please contact me on the forums by clicking on my name below and following the links to either Private Message or Email (you may have to register).  Bye for now!

- Tutorial written by Scrowler

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