PHP Manual
MySQL Functions
Open a connection to a MySQL Server

mysql_connect

(PHP 4, PHP 5)

mysql_connect — Open a connection to a MySQL Server

Warning

This extension was deprecated in PHP 5.5.0, and it was removed in PHP 7.0.0. Instead, the MySQLi or PDO_MySQL extension should be used. See also MySQL: choosing an API guide. Alternatives to this function include:

Description

mysql_connect(
    string $server = ini_get("mysql.default_host"),
    string $username = ini_get("mysql.default_user"),
    string $password = ini_get("mysql.default_password"),
    bool $new_link = false,
    int $client_flags = 0
): resource|false

Opens or reuses a connection to a MySQL server.

Parameters

server

The MySQL server. It can also include a port number. e.g. "hostname:port" or a path to a local socket e.g. ":/path/to/socket" for the localhost.

If the PHP directive mysql.default_host is undefined (default), then the default value is 'localhost:3306'. In SQL safe mode, this parameter is ignored and value 'localhost:3306' is always used.

username

The username. Default value is defined by mysql.default_user. In SQL safe mode, this parameter is ignored and the name of the user that owns the server process is used.

password

The password. Default value is defined by mysql.default_password. In SQL safe mode, this parameter is ignored and empty password is used.

new_link

If a second call is made to mysql_connect() with the same arguments, no new link will be established, but instead, the link identifier of the already opened link will be returned. The new_link parameter modifies this behavior and makes mysql_connect() always open a new link, even if mysql_connect() was called before with the same parameters. In SQL safe mode, this parameter is ignored.

client_flags

The client_flags parameter can be a combination of the following constants: 128 (enable LOAD DATA LOCAL handling), MYSQL_CLIENT_SSL, MYSQL_CLIENT_COMPRESS, MYSQL_CLIENT_IGNORE_SPACE or MYSQL_CLIENT_INTERACTIVE. Read the section about MySQL client constants for further information. In SQL safe mode, this parameter is ignored.

Return Values

Returns a MySQL link identifier on success or false on failure.

Examples

Example #1 mysql_connect() example


<?php
$link = mysql_connect('localhost', 'mysql_user', 'mysql_password');
if (!$link) {
    die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
echo 'Connected successfully';
mysql_close($link);
?>

Example #2 mysql_connect() example using hostname:port syntax


<?php
// we connect to example.com and port 3307
$link = mysql_connect('example.com:3307', 'mysql_user', 'mysql_password');
if (!$link) {
    die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
echo 'Connected successfully';
mysql_close($link);

// we connect to localhost at port 3307
$link = mysql_connect('127.0.0.1:3307', 'mysql_user', 'mysql_password');
if (!$link) {
    die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
echo 'Connected successfully';
mysql_close($link);
?>

Example #3 mysql_connect() example using ":/path/to/socket" syntax


<?php
// we connect to localhost and socket e.g. /tmp/mysql.sock

// variant 1: omit localhost
$link = mysql_connect(':/tmp/mysql', 'mysql_user', 'mysql_password');
if (!$link) {
    die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
echo 'Connected successfully';
mysql_close($link);


// variant 2: with localhost
$link = mysql_connect('localhost:/tmp/mysql.sock', 'mysql_user', 'mysql_password');
if (!$link) {
    die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
echo 'Connected successfully';
mysql_close($link);
?>

Notes

Note:
Whenever you specify "localhost" or "localhost:port" as server, the MySQL client library will override this and try to connect to a local socket (named pipe on Windows). If you want to use TCP/IP, use "127.0.0.1" instead of "localhost". If the MySQL client library tries to connect to the wrong local socket, the correct path should be set as mysql.default_host in php.ini and the server field left blank.

Note:
The link to the server will be closed as soon as the execution of the script ends, unless it's closed earlier by explicitly calling mysql_close().

Note:
Error "Can't create TCP/IP socket (10106)" usually means that the variables_order configure directive doesn't contain character E. On Windows, if the environment is not copied the SYSTEMROOT environment variable won't be available and PHP will have problems loading Winsock.