mysqli real_connect() Method

The mysqli::real_connect() / mysqli_real_connect() function is used to establish a connection to a MySQL database engine. This function differs from mysqli_connect():

mysqli_real_connect() requires a valid object which has to be created by function mysqli_init().
mysqli_real_connect() can be used with the mysqli_options() function to set various options for connection.
mysqli_real_connect() has a flags parameter.

Syntax

//Object-oriented style
public mysqli::real_connect(host, username, passwd, 
                        dbname, port, socket, flags)

//Procedural style
mysqli_real_connect(mysql, host, username, passwd, 
                      dbname, port, socket, flags)

Parameters

`mysql`	`Required.` For procedural style only: Specify a mysqli object returned by mysqli_connect() or mysqli_init().
`host`	`Optional.` Specify the host name or an IP address. Passing the null value or "localhost" to this parameter, the local host is assumed.
`username`	`Optional.` Specify the MySQL user name.
`passwd`	`Optional.` Specify the MySQL password. This allows the username to be used with different permissions (depending on if a password is provided or not).
`dbname`	`Optional.` If provided will specify the default database to be used when performing queries.
`port`	`Optional.` Specify the port number to attempt to connect to the MySQL server.
`socket`	`Optional.` Specify the socket or named pipe that should be used.
`flags`	`Optional.` Specify flags to set different connection options. Possible values are: MYSQLI_CLIENT_COMPRESS - Use compression protocol MYSQLI_CLIENT_FOUND_ROWS - return number of matched rows (not the affected rows) MYSQLI_CLIENT_IGNORE_SPACE - Allow spaces after function names. Makes all function names reserved words. MYSQLI_CLIENT_INTERACTIVE - Allow interactive_timeout seconds (instead of wait_timeout seconds) of inactivity before closing the connection MYSQLI_CLIENT_SSL - Use SSL (encryption) MYSQLI_CLIENT_SSL_DONT_VERIFY_SERVER_CERT - Like MYSQLI_CLIENT_SSL, but disables validation of the provided SSL certificate. This is only for installations using MySQL Native Driver and MySQL 5.6 or later.

Note: For security reasons the MULTI_STATEMENT flag is not supported in PHP. To execute multiple queries use the mysqli_multi_query() function.

Return Value

Returns true on success or false on failure.

Example: Object-oriented style

The example below shows the usage of mysqli::real_connect() method.

<?php
$mysqli = mysqli_init();
if (!$mysqli) {
  die('mysqli_init failed');
}

if (!$mysqli->options(MYSQLI_INIT_COMMAND, 'SET AUTOCOMMIT = 0')) {
  die('Setting MYSQLI_INIT_COMMAND failed');
}

//specifying connection timeout
if (!$mysqli->options(MYSQLI_OPT_CONNECT_TIMEOUT, 10)) {
  die('Setting MYSQLI_OPT_CONNECT_TIMEOUT failed');
}

//establishing connection to the database
if (!$mysqli->real_connect("localhost", "user", "password", "database")) {
  die('Connect Error: '. mysqli_connect_error());
}

echo 'Success... ' . $mysqli->host_info . "\n";

//closing the connection
$mysqli->close();
?>

The output of the above code will be:

Success... MySQL host info: localhost via TCP/IP

Example: Object-oriented style when extending mysqli class

Consider the example below where this method is used while extending the mysqli class.

<?php
class acs_mysqli extends mysqli {
  public function __construct($host, $user, $pass, $db) {
    parent::init();

    if (!parent::options(MYSQLI_INIT_COMMAND, 'SET AUTOCOMMIT = 0')) {
      die('Setting MYSQLI_INIT_COMMAND failed');
    }

    if (!parent::options(MYSQLI_OPT_CONNECT_TIMEOUT, 10)) {
      die('Setting MYSQLI_OPT_CONNECT_TIMEOUT failed');
    }

    if (!parent::real_connect($host, $user, $pass, $db)) {
      die('Connect Error: ' . mysqli_connect_error());
    }
  }
}

//establishing connection to the database
$db = new acs_mysqli("localhost", "user", "password", "database");

echo 'Success... ' . $db->host_info . "\n";

//closing the connection
$db->close();
?>

The output of the above code will be:

Success... MySQL host info: localhost via TCP/IP

Example: Procedural style

The example below shows the usage of mysqli_real_connect() function.

<?php
$mysqli = mysqli_init();
if (!$mysqli) {
  die('mysqli_init failed');
}

if (!mysqli_options($mysqli, MYSQLI_INIT_COMMAND, 'SET AUTOCOMMIT = 0')) {
  die('Setting MYSQLI_INIT_COMMAND failed');
}

//specifying connection timeout
if (!mysqli_options($mysqli, MYSQLI_OPT_CONNECT_TIMEOUT, 10)) {
  die('Setting MYSQLI_OPT_CONNECT_TIMEOUT failed');
}

//establishing connection to the database
if (!mysqli_real_connect($mysqli, "localhost", "user", "password", "database")) {
  die('Connect Error: '. mysqli_connect_error());
}

echo 'Success... ' . mysqli_get_host_info($mysqli) . "\n";

//closing the connection
mysqli_close($mysqli);
?>

The output of the above code will be:

Success... MySQL host info: localhost via TCP/IP

❮ MySQLi Functions Reference