title: Insert into mysql not working
body: <p>first post here and a newbie at php programming.</p>
  
  <p>I am trying to insert $val(2) into mysql database. My code is as follows: </p>
  
  <p><div class="snippet" data-lang="js" data-hide="false">
  <div class="snippet-code">
  <pre class="snippet-code-js lang-js prettyprint-override"><code>$username = "xxx";
  $password = "xxx";
  $hostname = "xxx";
  $val= "2";
  
  $connection=mysql_connect ($hostname, $username, $password)
  or die("Unable to connect to MySQL");
  
  $selected = mysql_select_db("database",$connection)
  or die("Could not select examples");
  
  $url = "http:xxxxxxxxxxxxx.com"; //url here
  $str = file_get_contents($url);
  
  $sql = "INSERT INTO testtable (data)
  VALUE ('".$val."')";
     
  $ins= mysql_query($test);
  if(! $ins )
  {
   die('Could not insert: ' . mysql_error());
  }</code></pre>
  </div>
  </div>
  </p>
  
  <p>When i run the code, there is no error printed out, but no data is being inserted into the table. Can someone point out the problem. I would appreciate the help. </p>
  
  <p>Addendum: </p>
  
  <p>I didn't include the lines:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$url = "http:xxxxxxxxxxxxx.com";    //url here
  $str = file_get_contents($url);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>in my first post. </p>
  
  <p>The real solution is to change:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$test to $sql
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>and to comment out the 2 lines below</p>
  
  <pre><code>file_get_content($url) 
  $str = file_get_contents($url);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>These 2 lines has to be placed on top (before the $username= "xxx" line) for it to work. Apologies for the misleading question.</p>