The most fundamental idea in electromagnetism is that there is magnetic field surrounding every current carrying object. These magnetic fields take the shape of concentric rings around atraight wire, called magnetic field lines. The bigger the current the more magnetic field lines. These lines are not random, they have direction and this is determined using the Right Hand Thumb Rule:

Point your thumb in the direction of the current, your fingers curl in the direction of the magnetic field lines.

Similarly, when current flows through a coil, it generates a magnetic field such that a coil acts like a magnet. Such coils are called solenoids.