MySQL: determine which database is selected?

Question

After calling mysql_select_db to grab a database, is there any way to later output the name of the database that is currently selected? This seems very basic bu

Answer 1

slightly off-topic (using the CLI instead of PHP), but still worth knowing: You can set the prompt to display the default database by using any of the following

mysql --prompt='\d> '
export MYSQL_PS1='\d> '

or once inside

prompt \d>\_
\R \d>\_

Answer 2

Just use mysql_query (or mysqli_query, even better, or use PDO, best of all) with:

SELECT DATABASE() FROM DUAL;

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Addendum:

There is much discussion over whether or not FROM DUAL should be included in this or not. On a technical level, it is a holdover from Oracle and can safely be removed. If you are inclined, you can use the following instead:

SELECT DATABASE();

That said, it is perhaps important to note, that while FROM DUAL does not actually do anything, it is valid MySQL syntax. From a strict perspective, including braces in a single line conditional in JavaScript also does not do anything, but it is still a valid practice.