php script connecting to my SQL database

Question

When trying to connect to my database using PHP I am getting an error.

$connect = mysql_connect("localhost","username","password") or die ("Couldn't Connect!");
mysql_select_db("databasename") or die ("Couldnt find database");

When I try running the script it keeps saying 'Couldnt find database' which means that I am connecting to the server but my database won't connect.

Am I doing something wrong here? I have pretty much copied and pasted my database name from Cpanel so I know there aren't any mistakes. But in Cpanel it is displayed as 'mywebsite'_database

Any ideas?

Answer 1

You specify in your question that your database is called:

'mywebsite'_database

If this is the case, then you need to change your code to

// Connect to the database
$connect = mysql_connect("localhost","username","password") or die ("Couldn't Connect!");

// Select the database
mysql_select_db("mywebsite_databasename",$connect) or die ("Couldnt find database");

If the above method does not work then I would advise debugging your connection by listing the databases for that particular user . Do this like so:

// Connect to the database
$connect = mysql_connect("localhost","username","password") or die ("Couldn't Connect!");

// Get all the databases for this particular user
$databases = mysql_list_dbs($connect);

// Loop through the databases and write them on the screen
while($database = mysql_fetch_assoc($databases)) {
     echo $database['Database']."\n";
}

exit;

Answer 2

mysql_select_db("mywebsite_database")

Answer 3

Print out the names of all the databases in the server (using mysql_list_dbs ).

Find the correct database name and replace "databasename" with it.

$connect = mysql_connect("localhost","username","password") or die ("Couldn't Connect!");

$db_list = mysql_list_dbs($connect);

while ($row = mysql_fetch_object($db_list)) {
     echo $row->Database . "\n";
}

mysql_select_db("databasename", $connect) or die ("Couldnt find database");

I recommend using MySQLi extension as mysql_* is currently in a depreciation process.

I hope this helps