How PHP and MySQL Work Together?

PHP provides the application part, and MySQL provides the database part of a Web database application. You use the PHP language to write the programs that perform the application tasks. PHP is flexible enough to perform all the tasks that your application requires. It can be used for simple tasks (such as displaying a Web page) or for complicated tasks (such as accepting and verifying data that a user typed into an HTML form). One of the tasks that your application must do is move data into and out of the database and PHP has built-in features to use when writing programs that move data into and out of a MySQL database.

PHP statements are embedded in your HTML files with PHP tags. When the task to be performed by the application requires storing or retrieving data, you use specific PHP statements designed to interact with a MySQL database. You use one PHP statement to connect to the correct database, telling PHP where the database is located, its name, and the password needed to connect to it. The database doesnt need to be on the same machine as your Web site;

PHP can communicate with a database acr across a network. You use another PHP statement to send instructions to MySQL. You send an SQL message across the connection, giving MySQL instructions for the task that you want done. MySQL returns a status message that shows whether it successfully performed the task. If there was a problem, it returns an error message. If your SQL message asked to retrieve some data, MySQL sends the data that you asked for, and PHP stores it in a temporary location where it is available to you.

You then use one or more PHP statements to complete the application task. For instance, you can use PHP statements to display data that you retrieved. Or you might use PHP statements to display a status message in the browser, informing the user that the data was saved.

As an RDBMS, MySQL can store very complex information. As a scripting language, PHP can perform very complicated manipulation of data, either data that you need to modify before saving it in the database or data that you retrieved from the database and need to modify before displaying or using it for another task. Together, PHP and MySQL can be used to build a Web database application that has a very sophisticated and complicated purpose.