PHP: Working with databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc.)

Working with databases is an essential part of web development and PHP provides several ways to interact with databases such as MySQL and PostgreSQL. One of the most commonly used ways to interact with databases in PHP is by using the MySQLi or PDO (PHP Data Objects) extensions.

MySQLi is a PHP extension that provides an object-oriented interface for interacting with MySQL databases. It allows you to connect to a database, execute queries, and retrieve results. To connect to a MySQL database using MySQLi, you can use the mysqli_connect() function, which takes in the database host, username, password, and database name as its parameters. Once connected, you can use the mysqli_query() function to execute a query and retrieve the results using the mysqli_fetch_assoc() function.

$mysqli = new mysqli("host", "username", "password", "database_name");

if ($mysqli->connect_errno) {
    echo "Failed to connect to MySQL: (" . $mysqli->connect_errno . ") " . $mysqli->connect_error;
}

$result = $mysqli->query("SELECT * FROM users");

while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
    echo $row['username'] . "<br>";
}

Another way to interact with databases in PHP is through the use of PDO (PHP Data Objects). PDO is a database-agnostic extension that allows you to interact with multiple database systems such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite using a consistent interface. To connect to a database using PDO, you can use the PDO() constructor, which takes in the database driver, host, username, password, and database name as its parameters. Once connected, you can use the query() or prepare() methods to execute queries and retrieve the results using the fetch() method.

$pdo = new PDO("mysql:host=host;dbname=database_name", "username", "password");

$stmt = $pdo->query("SELECT * FROM users");

while($row = $stmt->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC)) {
    echo $row['username'] . "<br>";
}

Both MySQLi and PDO provide robust and efficient ways to interact with databases in PHP, but PDO has an advantage in that it is database-agnostic and allows you to interact with multiple database systems using a consistent interface. It’s also more secure as it supports prepared statements which helps to prevent SQL injection.

In conclusion, working with databases in PHP is an essential part of web development and it can be done using the MySQLi or PDO extensions. Both extensions provide robust and efficient ways to interact with databases, but PDO has an advantage in that it is database-agnostic and allows you to interact with multiple database systems using a consistent interface.

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