The basic difference between writing code with PHP MySQL and PHP MySQLi is that MySQLi stands for MySQL improved.
Benefits of MySQLi
- MySQLi is an improved version of the MySQL extension for writing code in PHP.
MySQLi offers an object-oriented API, as well as support for prepared statements and transactions, which are not - MySQLi extension uses an object-oriented approach
- We can use the mysqli_stmt class to create a prepared statement and mysqli_begin_transaction, mysqli_commit, and mysqli_rollback to handle a transaction that is not available in the MySQL extension.
- MySQLi extension has a more consistent and simplified syntax available in the MySQL extension.
- MySQLi supports both procedural and object-oriented programming, while the MySQL extension only supports procedural programming.
- It is recommended to use MySQLi over MySQL as it is more secure and efficient.
Here is an example of connecting to a MySQL database using the MySQL extension in PHP:
<?php
$link = mysql_connect(‘hostname’, ‘username’, ‘password’);
if (!$link) {
die(‘Could not connect: ‘ . mysql_error());
}
echo ‘Connected successfully’;
mysql_close($link);
?>
And here is an example of connecting to a MySQL database using the MySQLi extension in PHP:
<?php
$link = new mysqli(‘hostname’, ‘username’, ‘password’, ‘database_name’);
if ($link->connect_error) {
die(‘Connect Error (‘ . $link->connect_errno . ‘) ‘ . $link->connect_error);
}
echo ‘Connected successfully’;
$link->close();
?>
