Show values from a MySQL database table inside a HTML table on a webpage

Question

I want to retrieve the values from a database table and show them in a html table in a page. I already searched for this but I couldn't find the answer, although this surely is something easy (this should be the basics of databases lol). I guess the terms I've searched are misleading. The database table name is tickets, it has 6 fields right now (submission_id, formID, IP, name, email and message) but should have another field called ticket_number. How can I get it to show all the values from the db in a html table like this:

<table border="1">
  <tr>
    <th>Submission ID</th>
    <th>Form ID</th>
    <th>IP</th>
    <th>Name</th>
    <th>E-mail</th>
    <th>Message</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>123456789</td>
    <td>12345</td>
    <td>123.555.789</td>
    <td>John Johnny</td>
    <td>[email protected]</td>
    <td>This is the message John sent you</td>
  </tr>
</table>

And then all the other values below 'john'.

Solution 1

Example taken from W3Schools: PHP Select Data from MySQL

<?php
$con=mysqli_connect("example.com","peter","abc123","my_db");
// Check connection
if (mysqli_connect_errno())
{
echo "Failed to connect to MySQL: " . mysqli_connect_error();
}

$result = mysqli_query($con,"SELECT * FROM Persons");

echo "<table border='1'>
<tr>
<th>Firstname</th>
<th>Lastname</th>
</tr>";

while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result))
{
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>" . $row['FirstName'] . "</td>";
echo "<td>" . $row['LastName'] . "</td>";
echo "</tr>";
}
echo "</table>";

mysqli_close($con);
?>

It's a good place to learn from!

Solution 2

Try this: (Completely Dynamic...)

<?php
$host    = "localhost";
$user    = "username_here";
$pass    = "password_here";
$db_name = "database_name_here";

//create connection
mysqli_report(MYSQLI_REPORT_ERROR | MYSQLI_REPORT_STRICT);
$connection = mysqli_connect($host, $user, $pass, $db_name);

//get results from database
$result = mysqli_query($connection, "SELECT * FROM products");
$all_property = array();  //declare an array for saving property

//showing property
echo '<table class="data-table">
        <tr class="data-heading">';  //initialize table tag
while ($property = mysqli_fetch_field($result)) {
    echo '<td>' . $property->name . '</td>';  //get field name for header
    $all_property[] = $property->name;  //save those to array
}
echo '</tr>'; //end tr tag

//showing all data
while ($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result)) {
    echo "<tr>";
    foreach ($all_property as $item) {
        echo '<td>' . $row[$item] . '</td>'; //get items using property value
    }
    echo '</tr>';
}
echo "</table>";

Solution 3

Learn more about PHP and the MySQLi Library at PHP.net.

First, start a connection to the database. Do this by making all the string variables needed in order to connect, adjusting them to fit your environment, then creating a new connection object with new mysqli() and initializing it with the previously made variables as its parameters. Now, check the connection for errors and display a message whether any were found or not. Like this:

<?php
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "root";
$password = "yourPassword";
$database = "world";
mysqli_report(MYSQLI_REPORT_ERROR | MYSQLI_REPORT_STRICT);
$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $database);
echo "Connected successfully<br>";
?>

Next, make a variable that will hold the query as a string, in this case its a select statement with a limit of 100 records to keep the list small. Then, we can execute it by calling the mysqli::query() function from our connection object. Now, it's time to display some data. Start by opening up a <table> tag through echo, then fetch one row at a time in the form of a numerical array with mysqli::fetch_row() which can then be displayed with a simple for loop. mysqli::field_count should be self explanatory. Don't forget to use <td></td> for each value, and also to open and close each row with echo"<tr>" and echo"</tr>. Finally we close the table, and the connection as well with mysqli::close().

<?php
$query = "select * from city limit 100;";
$queryResult = $conn->query($query);
echo "<table>";
while ($queryRow = $queryResult->fetch_row()) {
    echo "<tr>";
    for($i = 0; $i < $queryResult->field_count; $i++){
        echo "<td>$queryRow[$i]</td>";
    }
    echo "</tr>";
}
echo "</table>";
$conn->close();
?>

Solution 4

First, connect to the database:

$conn=mysql_connect("hostname","username","password");
mysql_select_db("databasename",$conn);

You can use this to display a single record:

For example, if the URL was /index.php?sequence=123, the code below would select from the table, where the sequence = 123.

<?php
$sql="SELECT * from table where sequence = '".$_GET["sequence"]."' ";
$rs=mysql_query($sql,$conn) or die(mysql_error());
$result=mysql_fetch_array($rs);

echo '<table>
<tr>
<td>Forename</td>
<td>Surname</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>'.$result["forename"].'</td>
<td>'.$result["surname"].'</td>
</tr>
</table>';
?>

Or, if you want to list all values that match the criteria in a table:

<?php
echo '<table>
<tr>
<td>Forename</td>
<td>Surname</td>
</tr>';
$sql="SELECT * from table where sequence = '".$_GET["sequence"]."' ";
$rs=mysql_query($sql,$conn) or die(mysql_error());
while($result=mysql_fetch_array($rs))
{
echo '<tr>
<td>'.$result["forename"].'</td>
<td>'.$result["surname"].'</td>
</tr>';
}
echo '</table>';
?>

Solution 5

Surely a better solution would by dynamic so that it would work for any query without having to know the column names?

If so, try this (obviously the query should match your database):

// You'll need to put your db connection details in here.
$conn = new mysqli($server_hostname, $server_username, $server_password, $server_database);

// Run the query.
$result = $conn->query("SELECT * FROM table LIMIT 10");

// Get the result in to a more usable format.
$query = array();
while($query[] = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result));
array_pop($query);

// Output a dynamic table of the results with column headings.
echo '<table border="1">';
echo '<tr>';
foreach($query[0] as $key => $value) {
    echo '<td>';
    echo $key;
    echo '</td>';
}
echo '</tr>';
foreach($query as $row) {
    echo '<tr>';
    foreach($row as $column) {
        echo '<td>';
        echo $column;
        echo '</td>';
    }
    echo '</tr>';
}
echo '</table>';

Taken from here: https://www.antropy.co.uk/blog/handy-php-snippets/

View more solutions

Comments

[otc]

How to handle large results where ""SELECT * FROM Persons" will cause either long waits or out of memory?

[Jonnny]

@otc add LIMIT BY clause and return a portion. Use this basis to paginate the results

[otc]

Thank you @Jonny. will this resume automatically where it left of or i have to keep track of order.

[Jonnny]

@otc you have to track it. Here's a quick google, I haven't gone through the code: code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/…

[ReinstateMonica3167040]

Note to other users: the mysql_ functions were removed in PHP 7 and deprecated since PHP 5.5. Consider using the mysqli_ functions if dealing with PHP 7 or later.

[Paul Feakins]

Would be better if you didn't have to hard code each column name.

[youcantryreachingme]

Much preferred approach that will work regardless of the number of columns or the column names in a query.

[ToolmakerSteve]

See w411 3's newer answer for solution that can display result from any query, without having to hardcode column names.

[Paul Feakins]

Yes you're right, very sorry for the confusion. I've clarified and tested to make sure the above runs and is complete.