To be able to connect to the MySQL database. We have to put a set of PHP code at the beginning of the file in order to connect. The code are as below:

<?php
mysql_connect("Host Name", "User Name", "User Password") or die("Connection Failed");
mysql_select_db("DataBase Name")or die("Connection Failed");
?>

The first line is to connect to the database with the mysql_connect ( ) function:

For the mysql_connect ( ) function:

• The first parameter from the left is the host name of the MySQL database.
• The second parameter from the left is the user name of the MySQL database.
• The third parameter from the left is the user password of the MySQL database.

The second line is to select the database with the mysql_select_db( ) function, and the name of the database as the parameter.

The last part “or die(“Connection Failed”)” is a conditional statement which means that if the operation failed then a message “Connection Failed” should print out onto the screen.