MySQL in a Nutshell

Name

mysql_error( )

Synopsis

char *mysql_error(MYSQL *mysql)

This returns the error message for the last function executed that failed. After a successfully executed function, an empty string is returned from this function.

...
if(!mysql_real_connect(mysql,host,"goofy",
                       password,database,0,NULL,0))
   {
    printf("Error Message: %s \n", mysql_error(mysql));
    exit(EXIT FAILURE);
   }
...

In this example, the program is attempting to connect to the MySQL server with a user who is not in the mysql database.