Can you display data from a database in a WordPress blog post?

Question

I'm a complete WordPress noob, so forgive any ignorance in the following question.

I have a database with NFL players' statistics and I'm interested in displaying that information in a blog post. Is it possible to have a SQL call to render that data be made when the user views the post? In other words, I'm trying to avoid cutting-and-pasting data from the database and into the blog post. I'd prefer to have a call to the database pull that data out and simply display it in the post.

Any insight into this topic is appreciated. FWIW, I'm a developer, so feel free to speak in dev-terms.

Answer 1

You can easily achieve this and more by making a page and using a template for that page. The template will be a copy of page.php (standard single page).

Edit the PHP code in there to reflect your DB call and data grid etc;

More details here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Pages

Answer 2

I've no experience in Wordpress either, but reading from the doc it seems they have a powerful plugin API.

I don't see any problem in using them to implement what you need.

Answer 3

Lots of info here: Function Reference/wpdb Class « WordPress Codex and some bug reports dealing with that class in the WordPress › Support » $WPDB using incorrect DB connections.