The functions available in the C API are summarized here and described in greater detail in a later section. See Section 20.10.3, “C API Function Descriptions”.

Application programs should use this general outline for interacting with MySQL:

The purpose of calling mysql_library_init() and mysql_library_end() is to provide proper initialization and finalization of the MySQL library. For applications that are linked with the client library, they provide improved memory management. If you don't call mysql_library_end(), a block of memory remains allocated. (This does not increase the amount of memory used by the application, but some memory leak detectors will complain about it.) For applications that are linked with the embedded server, these calls start and stop the server.

In a nonmulti-threaded environment, the call to mysql_library_init() may be omitted, because mysql_init() will invoke it automatically as necessary. However, mysql_library_init() is not thread-safe in a multi-threaded environment, and thus neither is mysql_init(), which calls mysql_library_init(). You must either call mysql_library_init() prior to spawning any threads, or else use a mutex to protect the call, whether you invoke mysql_library_init() or indirectly via mysql_init(). This should be done prior to any other client library call.

To connect to the server, call mysql_init() to initialize a connection handler, then call mysql_real_connect() with that handler (along with other information such as the host name, user name, and password). Upon connection, mysql_real_connect() sets the reconnect flag (part of the MYSQL structure) to a value of 1 in versions of the API older than 5.0.3, or 0 in newer versions. A value of 1 for this flag indicates that if a statement cannot be performed because of a lost connection, to try reconnecting to the server before giving up. You can use the MYSQL_OPT_RECONNECT option to mysql_options() to control reconnection behavior. When you are done with the connection, call mysql_close() to terminate it.

While a connection is active, the client may send SQL statements to the server using mysql_query() or mysql_real_query(). The difference between the two is that mysql_query() expects the query to be specified as a null-terminated string whereas mysql_real_query() expects a counted string. If the string contains binary data (which may include null bytes), you must use mysql_real_query().

For each non-SELECT query (for example, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE), you can find out how many rows were changed (affected) by calling mysql_affected_rows().

For SELECT queries, you retrieve the selected rows as a result set. (Note that some statements are SELECT-like in that they return rows. These include SHOW, DESCRIBE, and EXPLAIN. They should be treated the same way as SELECT statements.)

There are two ways for a client to process result sets. One way is to retrieve the entire result set all at once by calling mysql_store_result(). This function acquires from the server all the rows returned by the query and stores them in the client. The second way is for the client to initiate a row-by-row result set retrieval by calling mysql_use_result(). This function initializes the retrieval, but does not actually get any rows from the server.

In both cases, you access rows by calling mysql_fetch_row(). With mysql_store_result(), mysql_fetch_row() accesses rows that have previously been fetched from the server. With mysql_use_result(), mysql_fetch_row() actually retrieves the row from the server. Information about the size of the data in each row is available by calling mysql_fetch_lengths().

After you are done with a result set, call mysql_free_result() to free the memory used for it.

The two retrieval mechanisms are complementary. Client programs should choose the approach that is most appropriate for their requirements. In practice, clients tend to use mysql_store_result() more commonly.

An advantage of mysql_store_result() is that because the rows have all been fetched to the client, you not only can access rows sequentially, you can move back and forth in the result set using mysql_data_seek() or mysql_row_seek() to change the current row position within the result set. You can also find out how many rows there are by calling mysql_num_rows(). On the other hand, the memory requirements for mysql_store_result() may be very high for large result sets and you are more likely to encounter out-of-memory conditions.

An advantage of mysql_use_result() is that the client requires less memory for the result set because it maintains only one row at a time (and because there is less allocation overhead, mysql_use_result() can be faster). Disadvantages are that you must process each row quickly to avoid tying up the server, you don't have random access to rows within the result set (you can only access rows sequentially), and you don't know how many rows are in the result set until you have retrieved them all. Furthermore, you must retrieve all the rows even if you determine in mid-retrieval that you've found the information you were looking for.

The API makes it possible for clients to respond appropriately to statements (retrieving rows only as necessary) without knowing whether the statement is a SELECT. You can do this by calling mysql_store_result() after each mysql_query() (or mysql_real_query()). If the result set call succeeds, the statement was a SELECT and you can read the rows. If the result set call fails, call mysql_field_count() to determine whether a result was actually to be expected. If mysql_field_count() returns zero, the statement returned no data (indicating that it was an INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, and so forth), and was not expected to return rows. If mysql_field_count() is nonzero, the statement should have returned rows, but didn't. This indicates that the statement was a SELECT that failed. See the description for mysql_field_count() for an example of how this can be done.

Both mysql_store_result() and mysql_use_result() allow you to obtain information about the fields that make up the result set (the number of fields, their names and types, and so forth). You can access field information sequentially within the row by calling mysql_fetch_field() repeatedly, or by field number within the row by calling mysql_fetch_field_direct(). The current field cursor position may be changed by calling mysql_field_seek(). Setting the field cursor affects subsequent calls to mysql_fetch_field(). You can also get information for fields all at once by calling mysql_fetch_fields().

For detecting and reporting errors, MySQL provides access to error information by means of the mysql_errno() and mysql_error() functions. These return the error code or error message for the most recently invoked function that can succeed or fail, allowing you to determine when an error occurred and what it was.