How can PHP interact with databases like MySQL to efficiently manage file metadata and associations?

To efficiently manage file metadata and associations in a MySQL database using PHP, you can use SQL queries to insert, update, retrieve, and delete data as needed. PHP provides built-in functions like mysqli or PDO to interact with MySQL databases, making it easy to perform these operations.

// Connect to MySQL database
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$dbname = "database_name";

$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);

// Check connection
if ($conn->connect_error) {
    die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}

// Insert file metadata into database
$sql = "INSERT INTO files (filename, size, type) VALUES ('example.txt', '1024', 'text/plain')";
$conn->query($sql);

// Update file metadata in database
$sql = "UPDATE files SET size='2048' WHERE filename='example.txt'";
$conn->query($sql);

// Retrieve file metadata from database
$sql = "SELECT * FROM files WHERE filename='example.txt'";
$result = $conn->query($sql);
$row = $result->fetch_assoc();
echo "Filename: " . $row['filename'] . ", Size: " . $row['size'] . ", Type: " . $row['type'];

// Delete file metadata from database
$sql = "DELETE FROM files WHERE filename='example.txt'";
$conn->query($sql);

// Close database connection
$conn->close();