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,...)

 

To learn more about SQL, please visit our SQL tutorial.

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 (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:

<?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', '[email protected]')";

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

$conn->close();
?>

 

<?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', '[email protected]')";

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

mysqli_close($conn);
?>

 

The following PDO example creates a database named "myDBPDO":

<?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', '[email protected]')";
    // use exec() because no results are returned
    $conn->exec($sql);
    echo "New record created successfully";
    }
catch(PDOException $e)
    {
    echo $sql . "
" . $e->getMessage();
    }

$conn = null;
?>