I just get a blank page when i run this code:

PHP Code:

<?php

// Connect to database
mysql_connect('localhost', 'username', 'password'); // I put in my proper username and password, I just changed it here for security reasons

mysql_select_db('users');    // Select the database

$password = "testpass";
$password = crypt($password);

// Define and execute query
$query = "INSERT INTO accounts (user_id, username, password, email) VALUES (0, 'testing', $password, 'webmaster@fnar.sytes.net')";
mysql_query($query);

// Define the query
$query2 = 'SELECT * FROM accounts ORDER BY user_id DESC';

if ($r = mysql_query($query2)) {    // Run the query

    // Retrieve every record
    while ($row = mysql_fetch_array ($r)) {
        print "<table><tr><td>user_id</td><td>username</td><td>password</td><td>email</td></tr>
        <tr><td>{$row['user_id']}</td><td>{$row['username']}</td><td>{$row['password']}</td><td>{$row['email']}</td></tr></table>";
    }

} else {
die ('<p>query did not run</p>');
}

mysql_close();    // Close Db connection

?>

Hmm...

PHP Code:

<?php
$password = "testpass";
$password = crypt($password);

// Define and execute query
$query = " INSERT INTO `accounts` (`user_id`, `username`, `password`, `email`) VALUES ('0', 'testing', '$password', 'webmaster@fnar.sytes.net'); ";
mysql_query($query);

// Define the query
$query2 = " SELECT * FROM `accounts` ORDER BY user_id DESC ";

$r = mysql_query($query2);

if (!$r) {
   die ("<p>query did not run</p>");
} else {
    while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($r, MYSQL_ASSOC)) {        print("<table><tr><td>user_id</td><td>username</td><td>password</td><td>email</td></tr>
        <tr><td>" . $row['user_id'] . "</td><td>" . $row['username'] . "</td><td>" . $row['password'] . "</td><td>" . $row['email'] . "</td></tr></table>");
    }
}

mysql_close();    // Close Db connection

?>

Try that... if it works, tell me and I'll explain what I did. (Just make sure to include the connection variables and all that, too, I excluded them here.)

By the way, for the record: you're getting a blank page because the browser sees nothing to display, meaning that the "while" statement isn't executing (and thusly, the if returned false), meaning that a) that code in the IF just doesn't work or b) there is nothing in the table to be returned by the query.

that code worked!

so what was it you did?

Quite a bit, actually.

PHP Code:

<?php
$password = "testpass";
$password = crypt($password);

$query = " INSERT INTO `accounts` (`user_id`, `username`, `password`, `email`) VALUES ('0', 'testing', '$password', 'webmaster@fnar.sytes.net'); "; /* added tilde's (`) to the first values and apostrophe's to all the rest (also added the final ); in the query)
mysql_query($query); */

$query2 = " SELECT * FROM `accounts` ORDER BY user_id DESC "; // same thing--just a little more formatting

$r = mysql_query($query2); // ran the query seperately (as to get easier output)

if (!$r) { // changed it so that instead of checking to see if the query ran, it checks to see if the query was a success
   die ("<p>query did not run</p>"); // switched the order in which things occured. Errors usually go first, then the success actions
} else {
    while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($r, MYSQL_ASSOC)) { /* added MYSQL_ASSOC, which means that the values of $row will be arrayed with the associated table name (which may be auto, but I wasn't sure)  */

print("<table><tr><td>user_id</td><td>username</td><td>password</td><td>email</td></tr>
        <tr><td>" . $row['user_id'] . "</td><td>" . $row['username'] . "</td><td>" . $row['password'] . "</td><td>" . $row['email'] . "</td></tr></table>"); /* changed the actual display variables ($row['user_id']) so that they were included with " . XX . " rather than what you originally had, {XX} (which I've never seen before. When including variables in a print function, I think you have to use print("Rawr: " . $var); */
    }
}

mysql_close();

?>

Just take a look at all the comments. I deleted all others and wrote new ones based on what I did.

thanks alot

im learning php and i have a book. the tutorials in the book dont use the tilde's and they didnt put the ; at the end of the queries. yet they still work

I picked that up from phpMyAdmin, actually.

But yeah, you'll find that that's a major downside to PHP books. They're not entirely up-to-date and don't always have the most streamlined code (not like mine is streamline, but I've seen what they have examples for sometimes). It's always good to reconcile with the php.net documentary (extremely useful).