Insert Data Into a Database Table

Insert Data Into a Database Table

The INSERT INTO statement is used to add new records to a database table.

Syntax

It is possible to write the INSERT INTO statement in two forms.

The first form doesn't specify the column names where the data will be inserted, only their values:

INSERT INTO table_name

VALUES (value1, value2, value3,...)

The second form specifies both the column names and the values to be inserted:

INSERT INTO table_name (column1, column2, column3,...)

VALUES (value1, value2, value3,...)

To learn more about SQL, please visit our SQL tutorial.

To get PHP to execute the statements above we must use the mysql_query() function. This function is used to send a query or command to a MySQL connection.

Example

In the previous chapter we created a table named "Persons", with three columns; "Firstname", "Lastname" and "Age". We will use the same table in this example. The following example adds two new records to the "Persons" table:

$con = mysql_connect("localhost","peter","abc123");

if (!$con)

  {

  die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());

  }

mysql_select_db("my_db", $con);

mysql_query("INSERT INTO Persons (FirstName, LastName, Age)

VALUES ('Peter', 'Griffin', '35')");

mysql_query("INSERT INTO Persons (FirstName, LastName, Age)

VALUES ('Glenn', 'Quagmire', '33')");

mysql_close($con);

?>

Insert Data From a Form Into a Database

Now we will create an HTML form that can be used to add new records to the "Persons" table.

Here is the HTML form:

Firstname:

Lastname:

Age:

When a user clicks the submit button in the HTML form in the example above, the form data is sent to "insert.php".

The "insert.php" file connects to a database, and retrieves the values from the form with the PHP $_POST variables.

Then, the mysql_query() function executes the INSERT INTO statement, and a new record will be added to the "Persons" table.

Here is the "insert.php" page:

$con = mysql_connect("localhost","peter","abc123");

if (!$con)

  {

  die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());

  }

mysql_select_db("my_db", $con);

$sql="INSERT INTO Persons (FirstName, LastName, Age)

VALUES

('$_POST[firstname]','$_POST[lastname]','$_POST[age]')";

if (!mysql_query($sql,$con))

  {

  die('Error: ' . mysql_error());

  }

echo "1 record added";

mysql_close($con)

?>