Fetching data from a database and displaying it in a table format

This is a simple recipe where we will get some data from a table and we'll display it in a page. Users will be presented with a select box with options to choose a programming language. Selecting a language will get some functions and their details from the database.

Getting ready

Create a new folder named Recipe1 inside the Chapter8 directory. Now, using phpMyAdmin create a table named language in the exampleDB database using the following query.

CREATE TABLE `language` (
  `id` int(3) NOT NULL auto_increment,
  `languageName` varchar(50) NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY  (`id`)
);

Insert two records for languageName in this table, namely PHP and jQuery. Now, create another table functions that will have function names and details related to a language.

CREATE TABLE `functions` (
  `id` int(3) NOT NULL auto_increment,
  `languageId` int(11) NOT NULL,
  `functionName` varchar(64) NOT NULL,
  `summary` varchar(128) NOT NULL,
  `example...