PHP MySQL Insert Data

Insert Data Into MySQL Using MySQLi and PDO

After a database and a table have been created, we can start adding data in them.

Here are some syntax rules to follow:

  • The SQL query must be quoted in PHP
  • String values inside the SQL query must be quoted
  • Numeric values must not be quoted
  • The word NULL must not be quoted

The INSERT INTO statement is used to add new records to a MySQL table:

INSERT INTO table_name (column1, column2, column3,…)
VALUES (value1, value2, value3,…)

In the previous chapter we created an empty table named “MyGuests” with five columns: “id”, “firstname”, “lastname”, “email” and “reg_date”. Now, let us fill the table with data.

Note: If a column is AUTO_INCREMENT (like the “id” column) or TIMESTAMP with default update of current_timesamp (like the “reg_date” column), it is no need to be specified in the SQL query; MySQL will automatically add the value.

The following examples add a new record to the “MyGuests” table:

Example (MySQLi Object-oriented)

<?php
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$dbname = "myDB";

// Create connection
$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);
// Check connection
if ($conn->connect_error) {
  die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}

$sql = "INSERT INTO MyGuests (firstname, lastname, email)
VALUES ('John', 'Doe', 'john@example.com')";

if ($conn->query($sql) === TRUE) {
  echo "New record created successfully";
} else {
  echo "Error: " . $sql . "<br>" . $conn->error;
}

$conn->close();
?>

Example (MySQLi Procedural)

<?php
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$dbname = "myDB";

// Create connection
$conn = mysqli_connect($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);
// Check connection
if (!$conn) {
  die("Connection failed: " . mysqli_connect_error());
}

$sql = "INSERT INTO MyGuests (firstname, lastname, email)
VALUES ('John', 'Doe', 'john@example.com')";

if (mysqli_query($conn, $sql)) {
  echo "New record created successfully";
} else {
  echo "Error: " . $sql . "<br>" . mysqli_error($conn);
}

mysqli_close($conn);
?>

Example (PDO)

<?php
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$dbname = "myDBPDO";

try {
  $conn = new PDO("mysql:host=$servername;dbname=$dbname", $username, $password);
  // set the PDO error mode to exception
  $conn->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
  $sql = "INSERT INTO MyGuests (firstname, lastname, email)
  VALUES ('John', 'Doe', 'john@example.com')";
  // use exec() because no results are returned
  $conn->exec($sql);
  echo "New record created successfully";
} catch(PDOException $e) {
  echo $sql . "<br>" . $e->getMessage();
}

$conn = null;
?>