... PHP 3 <= 3.0.18, PHP 4 >= 4.0.0) mysql_error -- Returns the text of the error message from previous MySQL operation . ... Instead, use mysql_error() to retrieve the error text. Note that this function only returns the error text from the most recently executed MySQL function (not including mysql_error() and mysql_errno() ), so if you want to use it, make sure you check the value before calling another MySQL function. <?php mysql_connect("marliesle"); echo mysql_errno().": ".mysql_error()." ...