MySQLi Intro

Relax. We'll talk through this in plain words — no textbook voice.

A database is your app's memory bank. You need it to store things like user accounts, products, orders, posts, comments, and settings. By connecting PHP with MySQL/MariaDB, you can build dynamic websites. In this tutorial, to keep things beginner-friendly, MySQLi is used, with an emphasis on prepared statements.

php

-- Example table structure
CREATE TABLE contacts (
  id INT AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
  name VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL,
  email VARCHAR(150) NOT NULL,
  message TEXT NOT NULL,
  created_at TIMESTAMP DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
);

You should see

A contacts table gets created in the database, ready to store form submissions.

Easy traps

Keep your table and column names clear right from the start of the project. Renaming them later turns into a whole migration drama series.