I cant get the form data to go into database. What am I doing wrong?

Question

CODE UPDATED, STILL NOT WORKING. I know I´m apparently using mysql function which will be outdated. But for now all I want is for this code to work. I want to know what I´m doing wrong:(

I´m very new to php and databases... I have been struggling to get simple html form data to go into the database table. And I just can´t get it to work:( Can anyone help and see what is wrong with my code? I´ve just done a simple table in the database with the fields ID, FIRSTNAME and SURNAME. Here is the code:

    <?php 
    //connect to database
    $mysql_host = 'localhost';
    $mysql_user = 'root';
    $mysql_pass = '';

    $mysql_db = 'test';

    if (!mysql_connect ($mysql_host, $mysql_user, $mysql_pass)||!mysql_select_db ($mysql_db) ) {
        die(mysql_error());

    }   

    // Code     
    if (isset($_POST['firstname'])&&
    isset($_POST['surname'])) {

    $firstname = $_POST['firstname'];
    $surname = $_POST['surname'];

    if (!empty($username)&&!empty($password)) {
    $query = "INSERT INTO `test`.`test_tabell` 
    VALUES ('', '" . mysql_real_escape_string($firstname) . "', '" . mysql_real_escape_string($surname) . "')";
    /*$query = "INSERT INTO `test`.`test_tabell` VALUES (``, `.$firstname.`, `.$surname.`)"; */
    $query_run = mysql_query($query);
if (!$query_run) echo mysql_error(); 
}
}
    ?>

    <form action="add.php" method="POST">
    Firstname:<br> <input type="text" name="firstname" value="<?php if (isset($firstname)) { echo $firstname; } ?>"><br><br>
    Surname:<br> <input type="text" name="surname" value="<?php if (isset($surname)) { echo $surname; } ?>"><br><br>
    <input type="submit" value="Submit">
    </form> 

Thank you!

Answer 1

Don't use mysql specific syntax, It's outdated and it begins to be annoying when you need to do some high level stuff, and you can't switch to sqlite or postgresql.

I recommend using PDO, you can do something like:

// Usage:   $db = connectToDataBase($dbHost, $dbName, $dbUsername, $dbPassword);
// Pre:     $dbHost is the database hostname, 
//          $dbName is the name of the database itself,
//          $dbUsername is the username to access the database,
//          $dbPassword is the password for the user of the database.
// Post:    $db is an PDO connection to the database, based on the input parameters.
function connectToDataBase($dbHost, $dbName, $dbUsername, $dbPassword)
{
    try
    {
         return new PDO("mysql:host=$dbHost;dbname=$dbName;charset=UTF-8", $dbUsername, $dbPassword);
    }
    catch(PDOException $PDOexception)
    {
        exit("<p>An error ocurred: Can't connect to database. </p><p>More preciesly: ". $PDOexception->getMessage(). "</p>");
    }
}

And then init the variables (I think you forgot to define the name of the database);

$host = 'localhost';
$user = 'root';
$dataBaseName = 'databaseName';
$pass = '';

Now you can access your database via

$GLOBALS['db'] = connectToDataBase($host , $databaseName, $user, $pass);

Now you have an instance of a PDO database donnection.

One thing I want to point out is that you're vonurable to sql injections, you want to use prepared statements in your query, like:

$query = "INSERT INTO test(first_name, sur_name) VALUES (:firstname, :surname);";

Where we will execute two variables $firstName and $surName on the query, making them replace the values of :firstName and :surName, let me show you by first creating a simple insertion function:

function insertFunction($db, $query, $firstName, $surName)
{
    $statement = $db->prepare($query);
    return $statement->execute(array(":firstName" => $firstName, ":surName" => $surName));
}

So It's easy for you to do something like

$firstName = 'Smith';
$surName = 'John';
$db = $GLOBALS['db'];

$success = insertFunction($db, $query, $firstName, $surName);

Now you can check if it was successful or not, by checking whether $success is true or false.

If you want to see more advanced use of PDO (multiple rows etc) then you can check out one of my comments here: Javascript function as php? (Not the top comment).

I hope this helps. Please comment if anything is odd.

Answer 2

Hard to tell without seeing your schema but try this:

$query = "INSERT INTO `test`.`test_tabell` VALUES ('', '$firstname', '$surname')";
$query_run = mysql_query($query);

You're using backticks instead of apostrophes. Also, you're trying to execute a query before defining what the query is.

Answer 3

Your insert query is wrong and also open to SQL injections . Here's how it should be:

$query = "INSERT INTO `test`.`test_tabell` 
    VALUES ('', '" . mysql_real_escape_string($firstname) . "', '" . mysql_real_escape_string($surname) . "')";

Notice the changing of all backticks to apostrophe .

---

Also, you're trying to execute the query before defining it.

---

EDIT

As per your information related to table definition, you can skip the id field from your table. The INSERT query will become:

$query = "INSERT INTO `test`.`test_tabell` (`FIRSTNAME`, `SURNAME`)
    VALUES ('" . mysql_real_escape_string($firstname) . "', '" . mysql_real_escape_string($surname) . "')";
$query_run = mysql_query( $query );

Answer 4

As posted in the comments, you REALLY SHOULD NOT use/learn/practice using any function that starts with "mysql_" since it will NOT work as soon as PHP is updated. These functions are on their way out. Best of luck with learning to use PHP and SQL databases - just make sure you're learning something that will be useful in the future. Make sure to read up on Object Oriented Programming (OOP) in relation to PHP and both the PDO and mysqli_* functions.