problem installing WP on localhost

I would like to build a custom theme for my site, so I was advised to use XAMPP and build and test my theme on my local server.

The XAMPP install went great. I entered the database name, username, and password I created in myPHPadmin, but when I go to install WP I get a “can’t connect to database error.

I have scanned the wp-config.php file to see if I made a mistake but I can’t find any.

Can anyone possibly help?

Thank you,
Corie