How To Run a SQL Statement? - MySQL FAQs - PHP Connections and Query Execution

You can run any types of SQL statements through the mysql_query() function. It takes the SQL statement as a string and returns different types of data depending on the SQL statement type and execution status:

• Returning FALSE, if the execution failed.
• Returning a result set object, if the execution is successful on a SELECT statement or other statement returning multiple rows of data.
• Returning TRUE, if the execution is successful on other statements.

Here is a good example of running a SQL statement with the mysql_query() function:

<?php
  include "mysql_connection.php";

  $sql = 'SELECT SYSDATE() FROM DUAL';
  $res = mysql_query($sql, $con);
  $row = mysql_fetch_array($res);
  print("Database current time: ". $row[0] ."\n");

  mysql_close($con); 
?>

If you run this script, you will get something like this:

Database current time: 2006-07-01 21:34:57