I downloaded mySQL and mySQL driver NOW WHAT ?

Question

I downloaded the mySQL and the mySQL driver. What do I do now ?
I saw a book "mySQL and PHP for Dummies" . What is PHP ?
Can you give me direction ?
(without the "go read the archives" type of non-helpful help ?)
Thank you in advance
Stan

Answer 1

If it's PHP and MySQL you're interested in, why are you posting to a Java forum?
PHP is a Web scripting language:
http://www.php.net/
If you want to use MySQL with Java, you'll have to learn enough about SQL and relational databases to be able to get into MySQL, create some tables and users, and add some data. Then you'll use the MySQL JDBC driver to let your Java app access those database tables and do CRUD operations on them (Create/Read/Update/Delete).
There's a JDBC tutorial under the Tutorials link to the left on this page.
Here's a Java app that will let you run any valid SQL statement you wish against any database:
import java.sql.*;
import java.util.*;
public class DataConnection
    public static final String DEFAULT_DRIVER   = "sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver";
    public static final String DEFAULT_URL      = "jdbc:odbc:DRIVER={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)};DBQ=c:\\Edu\\Java\\Forum\\DataConnection.mdb";
    public static final String DEFAULT_USERNAME = "admin";
    public static final String DEFAULT_PASSWORD = "";
    /** Database connection */
    private Connection connection;
     * Driver for the DataConnection
     * @param command line arguments
     * <ol start='0'>
     * <li>SQL query string</li>
     * <li>JDBC driver class</li>
     * <li>database URL</li>
     * <li>username</li>
     * <li>password</li>
     * </ol>
    public static void main(String [] args)
        DataConnection db = null;
        try
            if (args.length > 0)
                String sql      = args[0];
                String driver   = ((args.length > 1) ? args[1] : DEFAULT_DRIVER);
                String url      = ((args.length > 2) ? args[2] : DEFAULT_URL);
                String username = ((args.length > 3) ? args[3] : DEFAULT_USERNAME);
                String password = ((args.length > 4) ? args[4] : DEFAULT_PASSWORD);
                db = new DataConnection(driver, url, username, password);
                Object result = db.executeSQL(sql);
                System.out.println(result);
            else
                System.out.println("Usage: db.DataConnection <sql> <driver> <url> <username> <password>");
        catch (SQLException e)
            System.err.println("SQL error: " + e.getErrorCode());
            System.err.println("SQL state: " + e.getSQLState());
            e.printStackTrace(System.err);
        catch (Exception e)
            e.printStackTrace(System.err);
        finally
            if (db != null)
                db.close();
            db = null;
     * Create a DataConnection
     * @throws SQLException if the database connection fails
     * @throws ClassNotFoundException if the driver class can't be loaded
    public DataConnection() throws SQLException,ClassNotFoundException
        this(DEFAULT_DRIVER, DEFAULT_URL, DEFAULT_USERNAME, DEFAULT_PASSWORD);
     * Create a DataConnection
     * @throws SQLException if the database connection fails
     * @throws ClassNotFoundException if the driver class can't be loaded
    public DataConnection(final String driver,
                          final String url,
                          final String username,
                          final String password)
        throws SQLException,ClassNotFoundException
        Class.forName(driver);
        this.connection = DriverManager.getConnection(url, username, password);
     * Clean up the connection
    public void close()
        try
            this.connection.close();
        catch (Exception e)
            ; // do nothing; you've done your best
     * Execute ANY SQL statement
     * @param SQL statement to execute
     * @returns list of row values if a ResultSet is returned,
     * OR an altered row count object if not
     * @throws SQLException if the query fails
    public Object executeSQL(final String sql) throws SQLException
        Object returnValue      = null;
        Statement statement     = this.connection.createStatement();
        boolean hasResultSet    = statement.execute(sql);
        if (hasResultSet)
            ResultSet rs            = statement.getResultSet();
            ResultSetMetaData meta  = rs.getMetaData();
            int numColumns          = meta.getColumnCount();
            List rows               = new ArrayList();
            while (rs.next())
                Map thisRow = new LinkedHashMap();
                for (int i = 1; i <= numColumns; ++i)
                    String columnName   = meta.getColumnName(i);
                    Object value        = rs.getObject(columnName);
                    thisRow.put(columnName, value);
                rows.add(thisRow);
            rs.close();
            statement.close();
            returnValue = rows;
        else
            int updateCount = statement.getUpdateCount();
            returnValue     = new Integer(updateCount);
        return returnValue;
}Maybe it'll help get you started with Java and JDBC. You're on your own with PHP. - MOD