Question

Can I insert something into a MySQL database using PHP and then immediately make a call to access that, or is the insert asynchronous (in which case the possibility exists that the database has not finished inserting the value before I query it)?

Answer 1

What I think the OP is asking is this:

<?
  $id = $db->insert(..);
  // in this case, $row will always have the data you just inserted!
  $row = $db->select(...where id=$id...)

?>

In this case, if you do a insert, you will always be able to access the last inserted row with a select. That doesn’t change even if a transaction is used here.