php mySql_connect() function

[Claus Mygind]

I am brand new to php and trying to learn this on my own.
I have set up php v5.3.3.0.
I am using Apache 2.2.11.0 and mySQL 5.0

I have successfully run sending an email app which has a contact_form.ht ml, php script, and response.html page. So I think the basic structure is working fine.

When I attempt to run this basic code (my script updatePhpTable. php).

<?php
$user="myUserName";
$password="myPassWord";
$database="myDataBase";
mysql_connect(localhost,$user,$password);
@mysql_select_db($database) or die( "Unable to select database");
mysql_close();
?>

I get the message.
Fatal error: Call to undefined function mysql_connect() in updatePhpTable. php on line 5

I am not sure why the mysql_connect() function is not working.

I have not set any of the following parameters in the php.ini file.

; Default port number for mysql_connect().  If unset, mysql_connect() will use
; the $MYSQL_TCP_PORT or the mysql-tcp entry in /etc/services or the
; compile-time value defined MYSQL_PORT (in that order).  Win32 will only look
; at MYSQL_PORT.
; http://php.net/mysql.default-port
mysql.default_port =

; Default socket name for local MySQL connects.  If empty, uses the built-in
; MySQL defaults.
; http://php.net/mysql.default-socket
mysql.default_socket =

; Default host for mysql_connect() (doesn't apply in safe mode).
; http://php.net/mysql.default-host
mysql.default_host =

; Default user for mysql_connect() (doesn't apply in safe mode).
; http://php.net/mysql.default-user
mysql.default_user =

; Default password for mysql_connect() (doesn't apply in safe mode).
; Note that this is generally a *bad* idea to store passwords in this file.
; *Any* user with PHP access can run 'echo get_cfg_var("mysql.default_password")
; and reveal this password!  And of course, any users with read access to this
; file will be able to reveal the password as well.
; http://php.net/mysql.default-password
mysql.default_password =

as I did not think they needed to be set.

[Claus Mygind]

Additional research in another forum gave the answer to my question.

http://www.phpfreaks.com/forums/faqcode-snippet-repository/call-to-undefinded-function-mysql_connect/

[Dormilich]

this should show you that the mysql_* functions are outdated nowadays (even the staff says so). better use PDO or MySQLi (it is not named mysql-improved for no reason).

[Claus Mygind]

I am not familiar with PDO? I did see the MySQLi but until your description did not know it stood for "improved".

So I would assume MySQLi would include all deprecated functions in MySQL.dll. I ask this silly question because, I do not see much mention of MySQLi when I am trying to learn PHP. But per your comment I will move to MySQLi, since I am only in the setup phase. Thanks for the tip.

[Dormilich]

I ask this silly question because, I do not see much mention of MySQLi when I am trying to learn PHP.

that’s because there are hardly tutorials about PDO and MySQLi. and because old tutorials don‘t get deleted.

if you want a personal recommendation, skip MySQLi and go for PDO. the result handling of PDO is way better than MySQLi’s. additionally, PDO uses Iterators (i.e. you can foreach a PDO result object to get your rows). not to mention MySQLi’s epic fail when it comes to handling of Prepared Statements.