How to connect to MySQL in Laravel

As a new web developer I was confused by this question, but today I finally figured it out. Here I want to share with you my notes.

Annecy, France

Actually, we have two ways to connect to the database of MySQL in Laravel.

1. With Laravel built-in server, run by php artisan serve:

• Create a new Laravel project by running it in the terminal in the repository of your choice: laravel new project_name.
• Once it’s finished, run cd project_name .
• Suppose you’re using VSCode, run code . to open the project folder.
• In .env , edit as below:

APP_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8000/
DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=project_name
DB_USERNAME=ur_username
DB_PASSWORD=ur_password

• Go to your terminal and log in to MySQL: mysql -u ur_username -p and then enter your password. I suppose you’ve already downloaded mysql globally.
• Run CREATE DATABASE project_name; then exit; .
• Find in folder Config the file database.php , and edit in the mysql part as below:

'host' => env('DB_HOST', '127.0.0.1'),
'port' => env('DB_PORT', '3306'),
'database' => env('DB_DATABASE', 'project_name'),
'username' => env('DB_USERNAME', 'ur_username'),
'password' => env('DB_PASSWORD', 'ur_password'),

Now run php artisan serve , try php artisan migrate to see if the users table has been migrated to MySQL database, if yes, you’ve connected to the database successfully!

2. Use MAMP, so you can edit the database in phpMyAdmin, and run the project in localhost:

• In the terminal, run cd /Applications/MAMP/htdocs .
• Create a project in this folder, by running laravel new project_name .
• In .env , edit as below:

APP_URL=http://localhost
DB_CONNECTION=mysql
DB_HOST=localhost
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=project_name
DB_USERNAME=root
DB_PASSWORD=ur_password
DB_SOCKET=/Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock

• In database.php , edit as below in the row of mysql:

'host' => env('DB_HOST', 'localhost'),
'port' => env('DB_PORT', '3306'),
'database' => env('DB_DATABASE', 'project_name'),
'username' => env('DB_USERNAME', 'root'),
'password' => env('DB_PASSWORD', 'ur_password'),
'unix_socket' => env('DB_SOCKET', '/Applications/MAMP/tmp/mysql/mysql.sock'),

• Start your MAMP engine, and go to localhost phpMyAdmin to add a database as project_name
• Test by running php artisan migrate , if successful, you will see users table in your phpMyAdmin database.
• Now the URL to see your project would be (http://localhost:8888/project_name/public/)

This is my first post on Medium, I hope this article can help people if they get frustrated like me before.