How to use PHP’s password_hash to hash and verify passwords

Using password_hash is the recommended way to store passwords. Don’t separate them to DB and files.

Let’s say we have the following input:

$password = $_POST['password'];

You first hash the password by doing this:

$hashed_password = password_hash($password, PASSWORD_DEFAULT);

Then see the output:

var_dump($hashed_password);

As you can see it’s hashed. (I assume you did those steps).

Now you store this hashed password in your database, ensuring your password column is large enough to hold the hashed value (at least 60 characters or longer). When a user asks to log them in, you check the password input with this hash value in the database, by doing this:

// Query the database for username and password
// ...

if(password_verify($password, $hashed_password)) {
    // If the password inputs matched the hashed password in the database
    // Do something, you know... log them in.
} 

// Else, Redirect them back to the login page.

Official Reference