Chapter 23. Database Integration

Topics in This Chapter

• Building HTML Tables from SQL Queries

• Tracking Visitors with Session Identifiers

• Storing Content in a Database

• Database Abstraction Layers

PHP has strong support for many databases. If native support for your favorite database doesn't exist, there's always ODBC, which is a standard for external database drivers. Support for new databases seems to show up regularly. The universal remark in this regard from the PHP developers has been "give us a machine to test on, and we'll add support."

MySQL is undoubtedly the most popular database used by PHP coders. Apart from being free, it suits Web development because of its blazing speed. In the examples for this chapter I'll assume you have a MySQL database. If you don't, you can either go to the MySQL Web site <http://www.mysql.com/> and investigate downloading and installing, or you can pursue changing the examples to work with another database.

Most relational databases use the Structured Query Language, or SQL. It is a fourth-generation language (4GL), which means it reads a bit more like English than PHP source code. A tutorial on SQL is beyond the scope of this book. If you're completely new to SQL, look for my other book, Core MySQL, also published by Prentice Hall Professional Technical Reference.