We will now use our users table inside the database examples:

Our users table has 3 columns: id, name, surname.

To INSERT some new data in our table we will:

1. connect to the server (localhost)
2. select a database (examples)
3. create a SQL query
4. run the query and store the result
5. check if the query has been successful

<?php #insertData.php
  //connecting to server
  $dbc = mysqli_connect('localhost','root','') or 
                    die('could not connect: '. mysqli_connect_error() );

  //selecting the database
  mysqli_select_db("examples") or die('could not select db');

  //DATA TO INSERT..
  $name = "john";
  $surname = "doe";

  //CREATING A DATABASE QUERY
/**
*  $q = "INSERT INTO `DATABASE`.`TABLE` (`FIELD`, `FIELD`, `FIELD`) 
*               VALUES ('value', 'value', 'value')";
*/

  //we can use NULL for the auto incremented primary key
  $q = "INSERT INTO `examples`.`users` (`id`, `name`, `surname`) 
               VALUES (NULL, '$name', '$surname')";

  //EXECUTING THE QUERY AND STORING THE RESULT IN A VARIABLE
  $result = mysqli_query($dbc, $q);

  //CHECKING IF THE QUERY AFFECTED A ROW USING mysqli_affected_rows()
  if(mysqli_affected_rows($dbc) == 1){
	//positive response
	echo "data inserted";
  } else {
	//negative response
	echo "could not insert data";
  }

//CLOSING DATABASE CONNECTION
mysqli_close($dbc);
?>

You can INSERT more than one row using the following syntax:

<?php #insertData.php
  
  //DATA TO INSERT..
  $name1 = "john";
  $surname1 = "doe";

  $name2 = "bill";
  $surname2 = "smith";

  $name3 = "james";
  $surname3 = "bond";


  //CREATING A DATABASE QUERY
/**
*  $q = " INSERT INTO `DATABASE`.`TABLE` (`FIELD`, `FIELD`, `FIELD`) 
*               VALUES ('value', 'value', 'value'),
*                           ('value', 'value', 'value'),
*                           ('value', 'value', 'value')  ";
*/

  $q = "INSERT INTO `examples`.`users` (`id`, `name`, `surname`) 
               VALUES (NULL, '$name1', '$surname1'),
                           (NULL, '$name2', '$surname2'),
                           (NULL, '$name3', '$surname3') ";

?>