Ask HN: Accessing databases with PHP? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Accessing databases with PHP?

2 pointsshire8 comments

What's is the preferred method for connecting with a database in PHP in 2014? I realize things move fast in the tech industry and there are always new updates and fixes happening but when building a websites in our era which is the best way to do.

Mysql, Mysqli or PDO?

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MySQL is deprecated and outright removed in PHP 5.5, so MySQLi is your fallback option instead. However, PDO is the best choice.

To add to the above, PDO is a good choice if you will be working with different database technologies (either in this project or across different projects), you only have to learn one API. If you only need MySQL, mysqli does have a few more features than PDO.

EDIT: here is a comparison: http://php.net/manual/en/mysqlinfo.api.choosing.php

So mysqli is the best choice if I'm only working with MySQL? but PDO is good for other technologies? good to know. Thanks.

Correct.

PDO is great because one API works with many technologies. So today you're working with MySQL, but tomorrow you may be working with postgres, and the next day sqllite or MSSQL. It's nice to not have to relearn everything (sure each technology will still have quirks, but largely they work the same with PDO). That flexibility comes with a few limitations, because if one technology supports it and another doesn't, that defeats the whole "one API to rule them all" thing.

if I'm working for clients is best to use PDO for database access all the time?

It is best to use PDO unless you have a VERY good concrete reason not to.

It is hard to even quantify what mysqli offers which PDO doesn't (because it is extremely niche). But it is very easy to quantify what PDO offers over mysqli (multi-database, flexibility, a better object model, etc).

PDO has been around in the PHP world for a while now, it isn't going away. Specific database APIs are dying, and the performance gap which might have once existed has been closed.

I wouldn't start a project in mysqli in 2014.

I'd always go with PDO, as its parameter binding is much more flexible/intuitive than mysqli's

Were I to choose one for a new project now, I would probably go with PDO simply because of its generic nature and support for prepared queries with parameter replacement. Mysqli apparently has this too but bind variables are somewhat difficult to use with the mysqli extension.

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