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PHP and Databases – Making the Connection

How to connect

There are 3 ways to connect to a database in PHP:

1. (DEPRECATED) The mysql functions are procedural and use manual escaping.
2. MySQLi is a replacement for the mysql functions, with object-oriented and procedural versions. It has support for prepared statements.
3. PDO (PHP Data Objects) is a general database abstraction layer with support for MySQL among many other databases. It provides prepared statements, and significant flexibility in how data is returned.

Ready to try some more PHP/MySQL?

A simple example of using a HTML form to capture search requirements and execute a custom query can be found at PHP112 - Simple HTML/PHP/MySQL example