How to connect a database to Laravel

Connect your database to Laravel with this easy example! Learn how to create a connection quickly and start building.

Connecting a Database to Laravel

Connecting a database to Laravel is an easy process that can be done in a few simple steps. Before you start, you will need to make sure that you have a database set up and configured. This can be done using a variety of tools such as phpMyAdmin or Sequel Pro.

Once you have your database set up, you'll need to configure your .env file in the root of your Laravel project. This file holds all of the environment variables that your application will use. It's important that you set up the correct values here so that your app can access the database. In the .env file, you'll need to set the following variables:

DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=database_name
DB_USERNAME=db_username
DB_PASSWORD=db_password

Once you have your .env file set up correctly, you'll need to create a new database connection. To do this, you'll need to open up the file config/database.php. Here you'll see a list of all of the available database connections. You can add a new connection for your database by adding the following code to the connections array:

'mysql' => [
            'driver' => 'mysql',
            'host' => env('DB_HOST', '127.0.0.1'),
            'port' => env('DB_PORT', '3306'),
            'database' => env('DB_DATABASE', 'database_name'),
            'username' => env('DB_USERNAME', 'db_username'),
            'password' => env('DB_PASSWORD', 'db_password'),
            'unix_socket' => env('DB_SOCKET', ''),
            'charset' => 'utf8mb4',
            'collation' => 'utf8mb4_unicode_ci',
            'prefix' => '',
            'strict' => true,
            'engine' => null,
        ],

Once you have added this code, you'll be able to access your database from your application. You can now use the DB facade or the query builder to interact with your database. If you're using Eloquent, you'll need to create a model for each of your database tables.

Connecting a database to Laravel is an easy process, and by following these steps you can set up your database and start interacting with it from your application. With the right configuration and a few lines of code, you'll be able to access your database and start building your application.