The PHP code below, will return the columns firstname, lastname from the Friends table.

PHP Query.php

<?php
//
$con = mysql_connect("localhost","username","password");
if (!$con)
 {
 die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
 }

mysql_select_db("my_db", $con);

$result = mysql_query("SELECT friendId,firstName,lastName,nickName FROM friends");

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
 {
 echo $row['FirstName'] . " " . $row['LastName'];
 }

mysql_close($con);
?>