connectiing php page to mysql database

[ryne]

hello everyone hope everyone is having a nice day!!!!!!!!!

I am building a webpage where students can sign up, I used php page to be the front end and mysql database to be the backend....
The problem is that I have to connect the php page to the mysql database so that we it will be stored on the backend...
<?php
$dbhost = 'localhost';
$dbuser = 'root';
$dbpass = 'password';

$conn = mysql_connect($dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpass) or die ('Error connecting to mysql');

$dbname = 'petstore';
mysql_select_db($dbname);
?>

I used the above codes to connect and saved that as test.php but whenever I try to browse that file on a browser it give this output:
Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_VARIABLE in C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\htdocs\connecting.php on line 4

can anyone help me with this one.........thanks in advance!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[trq]

There are no parse errors in the code you have posted, however, there is some confusion. You speak of a file called test.php, yet the error relates to a file called connecting.php

Which is this code? And may we see both?