mysql insert error check - php

Question

I have a PHP script that collects form data and inserts some of that data into a MySQL database. I just noticed that some inserts/records were NOT, or never created in the database. I would like to write a retry routine that if the insert fails to retry 3 times and then error out to the user.
Just so you can see my code for the DB and the insert so you can see that I am NOT nuts...
mysql_connect($hostname,$username, $password) or die(mysql_error());
mysql_select_db($dbname) or die(mysql_error());
Here is my insert code:
$query = "INSERT INTO contacts VALUES ('','$name','$address','$city','$state','$zip','$phone','$email_address','$arrive','$depart','$room','$found','$promocode','$message','$datetimestamp','$ip')";
mysql_query($query);
mysql_close();
I started out with an IF statement then into a loop but got lost.
#Jay:
So something like this:
$conn = new mysqli($hostname, $username, $password, $dbname);
// check connection
if (mysqli_connect_errno())
{
exit('Connect failed: '. mysqli_connect_error());
}
$query = "INSERT INTO contacts VALUES ('','$name','$address','$city','$state','$zip','$phone','$email_address','$arrive','$depart','$room','$found','$promocode','$message','$datetimestamp','$ip')";
// Performs the $query on the server to insert the values
if ($conn->query($query) === TRUE) {
//echo 'users entry saved successfully';
}
else {
echo 'Error: '. $conn->error;
}
$conn->close();
I am already checking for injection before the insert query

Answer 1

Your query is perfect, make sure that number of parameter you are passing in sql query is same as number of column in database table & parameter value in sql is same order of database table column order