---
title: AJAX Database
description: "AJAX can be used for interactive communication with a database. --- ## AJAX Database Example The following example will demonstrate how a web page can fetch information from a database with AJAX: ## Example Explained – The MySQL Database The…"
url: "https://apprentice.mn/docs/ajax-database/"
updated: "2021-05-11"
category: PHP
---

# AJAX Database

AJAX can be used for interactive communication with a database.

---

## AJAX Database Example

The following example will demonstrate how a web page can fetch information from a database with AJAX:

## Example Explained – The MySQL Database

The database table we use in the example above looks like this:

| id | FirstName | LastName | Age | Hometown | Job |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Peter | Griffin | 41 | Quahog | Brewery |
| 2 | Lois | Griffin | 40 | Newport | Piano Teacher |
| 3 | Joseph | Swanson | 39 | Quahog | Police Officer |
| 4 | Glenn | Quagmire | 41 | Quahog | Pilot |

 

---

## Example Explained

In the example above, when a user selects a person in the dropdown list above, a function called “showUser()” is executed.

The function is triggered by the onchange event.

Here is the HTML code:

### Example

       `<html>
<head>
<script>
function showUser(str) {
  if (str == "") {
    document.getElementById("txtHint").innerHTML = "";
    return;
  } else {
    var xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
    xmlhttp.onreadystatechange = function() {
      if (this.readyState == 4 && this.status == 200) {
        document.getElementById("txtHint").innerHTML = this.responseText;
      }
    };
    xmlhttp.open("GET","getuser.php?q="+str,true);
    xmlhttp.send();
  }
}
</script>
</head>
<body>

<form>
<select name="users" onchange="showUser(this.value)">
  <option value="">Select a person:</option>
  <option value="1">Peter Griffin</option>
  <option value="2">Lois Griffin</option>
  <option value="3">Joseph Swanson</option>
  <option value="4">Glenn Quagmire</option>
  </select>
</form>
<br>
<div id="txtHint"><b>Person info will be listed here...</b></div>

</body>
</html>`

Code explanation:

First, check if person is selected. If no person is selected (str == “”), clear the content of txtHint and exit the function. If a person is selected, do the following:

- Create an XMLHttpRequest object
- Create the function to be executed when the server response is ready
- Send the request off to a file on the server
- Notice that a parameter (q) is added to the URL (with the content of the dropdown list)

---

   

---

## The PHP File

The page on the server called by the JavaScript above is a PHP file called “getuser.php”.

The source code in “getuser.php” runs a query against a MySQL database, and returns the result in an HTML table:

     `<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style>
table {
  width: 100%;
  border-collapse: collapse;
}

table, td, th {
  border: 1px solid black;
  padding: 5px;
}

th {text-align: left;}
</style>
</head>
<body>

<?php
$q = intval($_GET['q']);

$con = mysqli_connect('localhost','peter','abc123','my_db');
if (!$con) {
  die('Could not connect: ' . mysqli_error($con));
}

mysqli_select_db($con,"ajax_demo");
$sql="SELECT * FROM user WHERE id = '".$q."'";
$result = mysqli_query($con,$sql);

echo "<table>
<tr>
<th>Firstname</th>
<th>Lastname</th>
<th>Age</th>
<th>Hometown</th>
<th>Job</th>
</tr>";
while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result)) {
  echo "<tr>";
  echo "<td>" . $row['FirstName'] . "</td>";
  echo "<td>" . $row['LastName'] . "</td>";
  echo "<td>" . $row['Age'] . "</td>";
  echo "<td>" . $row['Hometown'] . "</td>";
  echo "<td>" . $row['Job'] . "</td>";
  echo "</tr>";
}
echo "</table>";
mysqli_close($con);
?>
</body>
</html>`

Explanation: When the query is sent from the JavaScript to the PHP file, the following happens:

1. PHP opens a connection to a MySQL server
2. The correct person is found
3. An HTML table is created, filled with data, and sent back to the “txtHint” placeholder

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