creating tables only once

so i was just experimenting with a free web account with mysql databases, and i noticed that the "CREATE TABLE ... " thing only has to be done once, which makes sense, but if I want to do it only once, should i just load a file that does it, then take down that file? thanks guys.

If you upload a file which says 'CREATE TABLE example...'
And then navigate to it, as long as your code is right, it will create the table.

But you would use php to do that.

PHP: Select all

$sql = mysql_query("CREATE TABLE example...");
if ($sql) {
echo 'Done'; 
} else {
echo 'Error';
} 

Remembering that you would need to be connected to the database first

If you were then to navigate to that file again, it would give an error because the table already exists. MySQL will not overwrite if the table already exists.

Jack

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I would use phpMyAdmin for creating tables, most webhosts provide this software if you have MySQL enabled in your account. It makes it very quick and easy to set up all your tables and you can also view and edit table entries if you want as well.

If you have a file that contains all the table information you can import this in to phpMyAdmin and it will create all the tables for you.

okay thanks guys thats basically all i needed to know- i think i will just run a script that sets up all my tables like once then remove it. thanks

You can also create the tables in that and then ask it to create the required PHP code, which is handy

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okay, bigger problem now. i cannot find a free host w/ php and mysql that actually works! two of them that i have used- gigacities and one other, i forget- refuse to save my stuff without having an error, and when it does save the source code, it changes it! it deletes all of the php, as well as the starting html ,body and other important tags, so nothing ends up showing up! how to fix? thanks