Database talks to code but code won't talk to database

My code does not produce any error messages. I have 3 files: share.html where the user inputs data into a simple html form, insert.php which says Thank you, $Name then has the code that is supposed to insert the user's input into the database, favorites.php which uses a while loop to display the data from the database. After being thanked the user clicks a link going to favorites.php. The display works fine and will display data I input in PHPMyAdmin. Also I checked and if I put an invalid database name in insert.php it produces the string I wrote for or die. Also input from the form does appear on the insert.php page if I just use REQUEST but that's as far as it goes. Buteven though the correct database name produces no error the input from the html form is not inserted into the database and does not appear on the display page.