Should I Use MySQLi or PDO?
If you need a short answer, it would be "Whatever you like".
Both MySQLi and PDO have their advantages:
PDO will work on 12 different database systems, whereas MySQLi will only work with MySQL databases.
So, if you have to switch your project to use another database, PDO makes the process easy. You only have to change the connection string and a few queries. With MySQLi, you will need to rewrite the entire code - queries included.
Both are object-oriented, but MySQLi also offers a procedural API.
Both support Prepared Statements. Prepared Statements protect from SQL injection, and are very important for web application security.
MySQL Examples in Both MySQLi and PDO Syntax
In this, and in the following chapters we demonstrate three ways of working with PHP and MySQL:
MySQLi (object-oriented)
MySQLi (procedural)
PDO
MySQLi Installation
For Linux and Windows: The MySQLi extension is automatically installed in most cases, when php5 mysql package is installed.
For installation details, go to: http://php.net/manual/en/mysqli.installation.php
Copy PHP Code:
<?php
/* Database credentials. Assuming you are running MySQL
server with default setting (user 'root' with no password) */
define('DB_SERVER', 'host name');
define('DB_USERNAME', 'username');
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'password');
define('DB_NAME', 'database name');
/* Attempt to connect to MySQL database */
$conn = mysqli_connect(DB_SERVER, DB_USERNAME, DB_PASSWORD, DB_NAME);
// Check connection
if($conn === false){
die("ERROR: Could not connect. " . mysqli_connect_error());
}
?>
Copy PHP Code:
<?php
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$database = "database";
// Create connection
$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password,$database);
// Check connection
if ($conn->connect_error) {
die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}
echo "Connected successfully";
?>
