When many developers refer to a database, they are usually referring to MySQL, a very popular DBMS that powers projects of all sizes.
Create MySQL Database at the Localhost
First, let me tell you what PHPMyAdmin is. It is a control panel from where you can manage your database that you have created. Open your browser and go to localhost/PHPMyAdmin or click “Admin” in XAMPP UI.
When you first installed XAMPP, it only created the username for it to be accessed, you now have to add a password to it by yourself. For this, you have to go to User account where the user is same as the one shown in this picture:
Now click Edit privileges and go to Change Admin password, type your password there and save it. Remember this password as it will be use to connect to your Database.
Create Database
Now return to the homepage of phpmyadmin. Click New button to create a new database.
In the new window, name your database as per your need, I am naming it “practice”. Now select Collation as utf8_general_ci, as we are using it for learning purposes and it will handle all of our queries and data that will be covered in this tutorial series. Now click on Create and your database will be created.
The newly created database will be empty now, as there are no tables in it. I will be covering that in the upcoming series where we will learn how to create tables and insert data in it.
Create a Folder in htdocs
Now, locate the folder where you installed XAMPP and open htdocs folder (usually c:/xampp). Create a new folder inside c:/xampp/htdocs/ and name it “practice” we will place web files in this folder. Why we have created folder in htdocs? XAMPP uses folders in htdocs to execute and run your PHP sites.
Create Database Connection File In PHP
Create a new php file and name it db_connnection.php and save it. Why am I creating a separate database connection file? Because if you have created multiple files in which you want to insert data or select data from the databases, you don’t need to write the code for database connection every time. You just have to include it by using PHP custom function include (include ‘connection.php’) on the top of your code and call its function and use it. It also helps when you are moving your project location from one PC to another and you have to change the values on the single file and all the changes will be applied to all the other files automatically. Write the following code in your db_connection file.
Here is the explanation of the variable that we have used in our db_connection file:
- $dbhost will be the host where your server is running it is usually localhost.
- $dbuser will be the username i.e. rootand $dbpass will be the password which is the same that you used to access your phpmyadmin.
- $dbname will be the name of your database which we have created in this tutorial.
Create new php file to check your database connection
Create a new php file to connect to your database. Name it index.php and add this code in this file.
Run it!
Now open your browser and goto localhost/practice/index.php and you should see this screen:
