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# mysql_query

mysql_query -- Send an SQL query to MySQL

## Description

`int mysql_query`(string query, int [link_identifier] );

mysql_query() sends a query to the currently active database on the server that's associated with the specified link identifier. If `link_identifier` isn't specified, the last opened link is assumed. If no link is open, the function tries to establish a link as if mysql_connect() was called with no arguments, and use it.

The query string should not end with a semicolon.

mysql_query() returns TRUE (non-zero) or FALSE to indicate whether or not the query succeeded. A return value of TRUE means that the query was legal and could be executed by the server. It does not indicate anything about the number of rows affected or returned. It is perfectly possible for a query to succeed but affect no rows or return no rows.

The following query is syntactically invalid, so mysql_query() fails and returns FALSE:

Example 1. mysql_query()
    <?php
    $result = mysql_query ("SELECT * WHERE 1=1")
        or die ("Invalid query");
    ?>

The following query is semantically invalid if `my_col` is not a column in the table `my_tbl`, so mysql_query() fails and returns FALSE:

Example 2. mysql_query()
    <?php
    $result = mysql_query ("SELECT my_col FROM my_tbl")
        or die ("Invalid query");
    ?>

mysql_query() will also fail and return FALSE if you don't have permission to access the table(s) referenced by the query.

Assuming the query succeeds, you can call mysql_affected_rows() to find out how many rows were affected (for DELETE, INSERT, REPLACE, or UPDATE statements). For SELECT statements, mysql_query() returns a new result identifier that you can pass to mysql_result(). When you are done with the result set, you can free the resources associated with it by calling mysql_free_result().

See also: mysql_affected_rows(), mysql_db_query(), mysql_free_result(), mysql_result(), mysql_select_db(), and mysql_connect().

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