Open a connection to a MySQL Server

# mysql_connect

(PHP 4, PHP 5)

mysql_connect — Open a connection to a MySQL Server

Warning

This extension was deprecated in PHP 5.5.0, and it was removed in PHP 7.0.0. Instead, the MySQLi or PDO_MySQL extension should be used. See also MySQL: choosing an API guide. Alternatives to this function include:

- mysqli_connect()
- PDO::__construct()

### Description

mysql_connect(
string `$server` = ini_get("mysql.default_host"),
string `$username` = ini_get("mysql.default_user"),
string `$password` = ini_get("mysql.default_password"),
bool `$new_link` = `false`,
int `$client_flags` = 0
): resource|false

Opens or reuses a connection to a MySQL server.

### Parameters

`server`
  The MySQL server. It can also include a port number. e.g. "hostname:port" or a path to a local socket e.g. ":/path/to/socket" for the localhost. If the PHP directive mysql.default_host is undefined (default), then the default value is 'localhost:3306'. In SQL safe mode, this parameter is ignored and value 'localhost:3306' is always used.
`username`
  The username. Default value is defined by mysql.default_user. In SQL safe mode, this parameter is ignored and the name of the user that owns the server process is used.
`password`
  The password. Default value is defined by mysql.default_password. In SQL safe mode, this parameter is ignored and empty password is used.
`new_link`
  If a second call is made to mysql_connect() with the same arguments, no new link will be established, but instead, the link identifier of the already opened link will be returned. The `new_link` parameter modifies this behavior and makes mysql_connect() always open a new link, even if mysql_connect() was called before with the same parameters. In SQL safe mode, this parameter is ignored.
`client_flags`
  The `client_flags` parameter can be a combination of the following constants: 128 (enable `LOAD DATA LOCAL` handling), `MYSQL_CLIENT_SSL`, `MYSQL_CLIENT_COMPRESS`, `MYSQL_CLIENT_IGNORE_SPACE` or `MYSQL_CLIENT_INTERACTIVE`. Read the section about MySQL client constants for further information. In SQL safe mode, this parameter is ignored.

### Return Values

Returns a MySQL link identifier on success or `false` on failure.

### Examples

Example #1 mysql_connect() example

`<?php
$link = mysql_connect('localhost', 'mysql_user', 'mysql_password');
if (!$link) {
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
echo 'Connected successfully';
mysql_close($link);
?>`

Example #2 mysql_connect() example using `hostname:port` syntax

`<?php
// we connect to example.com and port 3307
$link = mysql_connect('example.com:3307', 'mysql_user', 'mysql_password');
if (!$link) {
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
echo 'Connected successfully';
mysql_close($link);
// we connect to localhost at port 3307
$link = mysql_connect('127.0.0.1:3307', 'mysql_user', 'mysql_password');
if (!$link) {
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
echo 'Connected successfully';
mysql_close($link);
?>`

Example #3 mysql_connect() example using ":/path/to/socket" syntax

`<?php
// we connect to localhost and socket e.g. /tmp/mysql.sock
// variant 1: omit localhost
$link = mysql_connect(':/tmp/mysql', 'mysql_user', 'mysql_password');
if (!$link) {
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
echo 'Connected successfully';
mysql_close($link);
// variant 2: with localhost
$link = mysql_connect('localhost:/tmp/mysql.sock', 'mysql_user', 'mysql_password');
if (!$link) {
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
echo 'Connected successfully';
mysql_close($link);
?>`

### Notes

> Note: Whenever you specify "localhost" or "localhost:port" as server, the MySQL client library will override this and try to connect to a local socket (named pipe on Windows). If you want to use TCP/IP, use "127.0.0.1" instead of "localhost". If the MySQL client library tries to connect to the wrong local socket, the correct path should be set as mysql.default_host in php.ini and the server field left blank.

> Note: The link to the server will be closed as soon as the execution of the script ends, unless it's closed earlier by explicitly calling mysql_close().

> Note: Error "Can't create TCP/IP socket (10106)" usually means that the variables_order configure directive doesn't contain character `E`. On Windows, if the environment is not copied the `SYSTEMROOT` environment variable won't be available and PHP will have problems loading Winsock.

### See Also

- mysql_pconnect() - Open a persistent connection to a MySQL server
- mysql_close() - Close MySQL connection

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