Display MySQL Data in HTML Table with PHP

Learn how to fetch rows from a MySQL database and display them in a well-formatted HTML table using PDO in PHP.

📌 Why Display Data in a Table?

Displaying database content in an HTML table is essential for dashboards, reports, admin panels, and user interfaces. It's the most effective way to visualize tabular data.

🔌 Connect to the Database

<?php
$pdo = new PDO("mysql:host=localhost;dbname=demo", "user", "pass");
$pdo->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
?>

📄 Fetch and Display Data

<?php
$stmt = $pdo->query("SELECT id, username, email FROM users");
$rows = $stmt->fetchAll();
?>

<table border="1" cellpadding="8" cellspacing="0">
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>ID</th>
      <th>Username</th>
      <th>Email</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <?php foreach ($rows as $row): ?>
      <tr>
        <td><?= htmlspecialchars($row['id']) ?></td>
        <td><?= htmlspecialchars($row['username']) ?></td>
        <td><?= htmlspecialchars($row['email']) ?></td>
      </tr>
    <?php endforeach; ?>
  </tbody>
</table>

✅ Best Practices

• Always use htmlspecialchars() when outputting user data
• Use CSS to improve table appearance
• Consider paginating large datasets

🧾 Summary

Displaying MySQL data in an HTML table is simple with PDO and PHP. With secure coding practices and a bit of styling, you can make your tables look professional and easy to use.