Page 439 - Beginning PHP 5.3

Chapter 13: Retrieving Data from MySQL with PHP
Now click a username in the member list. You ’ ll be taken to the view_member.php script, which should
look similar to Figure 13 - 2. Click the Back link to return to the members list.

Figure 13-2

You ’ re now well on your way to writing complex, database - driven PHP applications. The next logical
step, of course, is to create applications that can write data to a database, rather than just retrieve data,
and you do this in the next chapter.

Summary

In this chapter you expanded on your knowledge of both MySQL and PDO, and learned how to create
PHP applications that are capable of reading data from database tables and displaying the data to the user:

❑ First you set up the tables for an imaginary book club database that you used throughout the
chapter. Along the way, you explored the BINARY attribute and case - sensitivity; the UNIQUE
constraint for enforcing unique values in a column; the ENUM data type for creating fields with a
small number of possible values; and the TIMESTAMP data type for automatically recording
when records are created or updated

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