Choosing an API

PHP offers different APIs to connect to MySQL. Below we show the APIs provided by the mysqli and PDO extensions. Each code snippet creates a connection to a MySQL server running on "example.com" using the username "user" and the password "password". And a query is run to greet the user.

Example #1 Comparing the MySQL APIs

<?php
// mysqli
$mysqli = new mysqli("example.com", "user", "password", "database");
$result = $mysqli->query("SELECT 'Hello, dear MySQL user!' AS _message FROM DUAL");
$row = $result->fetch_assoc();
echo htmlentities($row['_message']);

// PDO
$pdo = new PDO('mysql:host=example.com;dbname=database', 'user', 'password');
$statement = $pdo->query("SELECT 'Hello, dear MySQL user!' AS _message FROM DUAL");
$row = $statement->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
echo htmlentities($row['_message']);

Example #2 Comparing prepared statements

<?php
// mysqli
$mysqli = new mysqli("example.com", "user", "password", "database");
$statement = $mysqli->prepare("SELECT District FROM City WHERE Name=?");
$statement->execute(["Amersfoort"]);
$result = $statement->get_result();
$row = $result->fetch_assoc();
echo htmlentities($row['District']);

// PDO
$pdo = new PDO('mysql:host=example.com;dbname=database', 'user', 'password');
$statement = $pdo->prepare("SELECT District FROM City WHERE Name=?");
$statement->execute(["Amersfoort"]);
$row = $statement->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
echo htmlentities($row['District']);

Feature comparison

The overall performance of both extensions is considered to be about the same. Although the performance of the extension contributes only a fraction of the total run time of a PHP web request. Often, the impact is as low as 0.1%.

  ext/mysqli PDO_MySQL
PHP version introduced 5.0 5.1
Included with PHP 7.x and 8.x Yes Yes
Development status Active Active
Lifecycle Active Active
Recommended for new projects Yes Yes
OOP Interface Yes Yes
Procedural Interface Yes No
API supports non-blocking, asynchronous queries with mysqlnd Yes No
Persistent Connections Yes Yes
API supports Charsets Yes Yes
API supports server-side Prepared Statements Yes Yes
API supports client-side Prepared Statements No Yes
API supports Stored Procedures Yes Yes
API supports Multiple Statements Yes Most
API supports Transactions Yes Yes
Transactions can be controlled with SQL Yes Yes
Supports all MySQL 5.1+ functionality Yes Most