tags:

views:

156

answers:

10

Background: I am more of a designer than a programmer, but have hacked templates for many open source CMS's (Drupal, Joomla, Wordpress)

I want to start from scratch in regards to the relations of php and a mysql database.

Lets assume I have a working database and php engine locally.

What would be my first step to connecting to my database and creating a table... (im happy to be led to an appropriate tutorial...)

Many of the tutorials I have seen start with basic php, but I would rather explore the connection between the db and the php.

+4  A: 

This seems to be a pretty good tutorial:

http://www.freewebmasterhelp.com/tutorials/phpmysql

John Boker
+2  A: 

If you want to really get a leg up... see if you can get programs like CPanel and PHPMyAdmin.

PHPMyAdmin will give you a more familiar UI for database control and ease you into using mySQL.

IPX Ares
+1  A: 

There are two ways: start to learn SQL and create tables trough SQL or use PHPMyAdmin to administer the database. From then on you only have to learn how to get the data from the database.

PhpMyAdmin also displays the queries so you can analyze these.

Marien
+1  A: 

You can also have a look at XAMPP, which makes installing everything required for PHP/MySQL a breeze. Linux, Windows? No problem.

Mr. Smith
+1  A: 

I think tizag has a good beginner tutorial.

MrHus
+1  A: 

W3Schools has a big tutorial on both PHP and MySQL.

A useful tip is also to know that you can look up anything you need on the official PHP and MySQL support pages by going to

php.net/search-term-here (example)

mysql.com/search-term-here (example)

Sebastian P.
+2  A: 

Get into PDO . It's gonna be the next big php/mysql thing. A lot of sites have switched to it. It's simple and securer than conventional mysql_* . A good book (for beginners and to start you going) that is for sure not for production is Wicked Cool Php Scripts

dassouki
+1  A: 

Nettuts and theme forest blog have a nice video series on learning php. They have other series such as wordpress and are currently doing a series on code ignitor which both use php.

Daisy Moon
A: 

Google: php mysql tutorial buddy .. doesnt take rocket science to solve ur question

RobertC
yeah im pretty sure you could google most the stuff on here. id rather find something someone can tell me works well... rather than something that SEO's well... isnt that the point?
fighella
A: 

Install mySQL and look up basic tutorials on how to create a table, update, etc. Once you feel handy with that, install XAMPP lite, where you can start practicing PHP. Look up tutorials on how to use PHP to access your database. XAMPP also has phpMyAdmin, so you have a much easier interface to work with your databases.

It'd be good if you had some basic programming knowledge too-- it makes understanding PHP significantly easier.

yuudachi