var_dump

<?php
//1. Create a db connection
$dbhost = "localhost";
$dbuser = "widget_cms";
$dbpass = "secretpassword";
$dbname = "widget_corp";

$connection = mysqli_connect($dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpass, $dbname);

//Test if connection occured
if(mysqli_connect_errno()) {
    die("Database connection failed: " .
           mysqli_connect_error() .
           " (" . mysqli_connect_errno() . ")"
    );
} else {
    $connection_status = "true";
}
?>


<?php
//2. Perform db query
$query = "SELECT * FROM subjects";
$result = mysqli_query($connection, $query);

//Test if there was a query error
if(!$result) {
    die("DB query failed.");
}

?>


<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title>connecting to mysql with php</title>
</head>
<body>


<?php
if(isset($connection_status)) {
    echo "Connection successfull. <hr />";
}
?>


<?php
//3. Use returned data (if any)

//while it can fetch assign it to $row variable   (   mysqli_fetch_row($result)   ) - is a condition
while( $row = mysqli_fetch_row($result) ) {
    //output data from each row
    var_dump($row);
    echo "<hr />";
}


?>


</body>
</html>

<?php
// 5. Close database connection
mysqli_close($connection);
?>