21.9. MySQL PHP API

21.9.1. Overview of the MySQL PHP drivers
21.9.2. Original MySQL API (Mysql)
21.9.3. MySQL Improved Extension (Mysqli)
21.9.4. MySQL Functions (PDO_MYSQL) (MySQL (PDO))
21.9.5. MySQL Native Driver (Mysqlnd)
21.9.6. Mysqlnd replication and load balancing plugin (mysqlnd_ms)
21.9.7. Mysqlnd query result cache plugin (mysqlnd_qc)
21.9.8. Mysqlnd user handler plugin (mysqlnd_uh)
21.9.9. Mysqlnd connection multiplexing plugin (mysqlnd_mux)
21.9.10. Mysqlnd Memcache plugin (mysqlnd_memcache)
21.9.11. Connector/PHP
21.9.12. Common Problems with MySQL and PHP
21.9.13. Enabling Both mysql and mysqli inPHP

PHP is a server-side, HTML-embedded scripting language that may be used to create dynamic Web pages. It is available for most operating systems and Web servers, and can access most common databases, including MySQL. PHP may be run as a separate program or compiled as a module for use with a Web server.

PHP provides three different MySQL API extensions:

Section 21.9.3, "MySQL Improved Extension (Mysqli)": Stands for "MySQL, Improved"; this extension is available as of PHP 5.0.0. It is intended for use with MySQL 4.1.1 and later. This extension fully supports the authentication protocol used in MySQL 5.0, as well as the Prepared Statements and Multiple Statements APIs. In addition, this extension provides an advanced, object-oriented programming interface.
Section 21.9.4, "MySQL Functions (PDO_MYSQL) (MySQL (PDO))": Not its own API, but instead it's a MySQL driver for the PHP database abstraction layer PDO (PHP Data Objects). The PDO MySQL driver sits in the layer below PDO itself, and provides MySQL-specific functionality. This extension is available as of PHP 5.1.0.
Section 21.9.2, "Original MySQL API (Mysql)": Available for PHP versions 4 and 5, this extension is intended for use with MySQL versions prior to MySQL 4.1. This extension does not support the improved authentication protocol used in MySQL 4.1, nor does it support prepared statements or multiple statements. To use this extension with MySQL 4.1, you will likely configure the MySQL server to set the old_passwords system variable to 1 (see Section C.5.2.4, "Client does not support authentication protocol").

This extension is deprecated as of PHP 5.5.0, and its use is highly discouraged. All users are encouraged to migrate to either mysqli or PDO_MySQL. For further information, see Section 21.9.1.3, "Choosing an API".

The PHP distribution and documentation are available from the PHP Web site.

Portions of this section are Copyright (c) 1997-2012 the PHP Documentation Group This material may be distributed only subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License or later. A copy of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license is distributed with this manual. The latest version is presently available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/.