PHP and MySQL Programming/Creating a Table
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Before creating a table, please read the previous section on Creating a Database.
A Table resides inside a database. Tables contain rows, which are made up of a collection of common fields or columns. Here is a sample output for a SELECT * query:
mysql> SELECT * FROM `books`; +------------+--------------+------------------------------+------+ | ISBN Invalid ISBN | Author | Title | Year | +------------+--------------+------------------------------+------+ | 1234567890 | Poisson, R.W | Programming PHP and MySQL | 2006 | | 5946253158 | Wilson, M | Java Secrets | 2005 | | 8529637410 | Moritz, R | C from Beginners to Advanced | 2001 | +------------+--------------+------------------------------+------+
As you can see, We have rows (horizontal collection of fields), as well as columns (the vertical attributes and values).
Creating a Table
[edit | edit source ]The SQL code for creating a table is as follows:
mysql> CREATE TABLE `table_name` ( `field1` type NOT NULL|NULL default 'default_value', `field2` type NOT NULL|NULL default 'default_value', ... );
Example
[edit | edit source ]Here is an example of creating a table called `books`:
mysql> CREATE TABLE `books` ( `ISBN` varchar(35) NOT NULL default '', `Author` varchar(50) NOT NULL default '', `Title` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '', `Year` int(11) NOT NULL default '2000' );
Getting Information about Tables
[edit | edit source ]To get a list of tables:
mysql> SHOW TABLES;
Which produces the following output:
+-------------------+ | Tables_in_library | +-------------------+ | books | +-------------------+ 1 row in set (0.19 sec)
To show the CREATE query used to create the table:
mysql> SHOW CREATE TABLE `books`;
Which produces the following output:
+-------+--------------------------------------------+ | Table | Create Table +-------+--------------------------------------------+ | books | CREATE TABLE `books` ( `ISBN` varchar(35) NOT NULL default '', `Author` varchar(50) NOT NULL default '', `Title` varchar(255) NOT NULL default '', `Year` int(11) NOT NULL default '2000' ) TYPE=MyISAM | +-------+--------------------------------------------+ 1 row in set (0.05 sec)
And then to show the same information, in a tabulated format:
mysql> DESCRIBE `books`;
Which produces the following output:
+--------+--------------+------+-----+---------+-------+ | Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra | +--------+--------------+------+-----+---------+-------+ | ISBN Invalid ISBN | varchar(35) | | | | | | Author | varchar(50) | | | | | | Title | varchar(255) | | | | | | Year | int(11) | | | 2000 | | +--------+--------------+------+-----+---------+-------+ 4 rows in set (0.18 sec)