PHP Script to Connect to Database and Get List of Departments

#!/usr/bin/php
<?php
// Connecting, selecting database
$link = mysql_connect('localhost', 'class', 'dbpasswd') or die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
mysql_select_db('coursecatalog') or die('Could not select database');

// Performing SQL query
$query = 'SELECT distinct department_short, department_code FROM courses order by department_short';
$result = mysql_query($query) or die('Query failed: ' . mysql_error());

// iterating through results
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC)) {
  echo $row['department_code'];
  echo "\t";
  echo $row['department_short'];
  echo "\n";
}
?>

Output