I'm really excited about using Laravel, but there's one small problem - I can't connect to my database. I've been trying to get this work for hours now and I'm about ready to pull my hair out.

My apache and mysql services are running.

I was able to make the database 'learninglaravel' using phpMyAdmin. I created a table. Created a row. Verified it's in there. So far so good. I've verified thru command prompt that the database/table are there and they are.

I have a route in Laravel ready to display the info:

Route::get('/', function()
{
	$posts = DB::query("SELECT * FROM posts");
	print_r($posts);

});

I went into my database.php file and set the settings:

'mysql' => array(
			'driver'    => 'mysql',
			'host'      => '127.0.0.1',
			'database'  => 'learninglaravel',
			'username'  => 'root',
			'password'  => '',
			'charset'   => 'utf8',
			'collation' => 'utf8_unicode_ci',
			'prefix'    => '',

I also tried 'localhost' instead of '127.0.0.1', no difference. I tried adding the port using: 'port' => '3306'. no difference.

This is the route to my laravel project: F:\Apps\xampp\htdocs\laravel

And this is the route to my mysql: F:\Apps\xampp\mysql\bin

I even ran the command: php artisan migrate:install --env-local

Any help would be greatly appreciated please!