Choose your weapon: PHP and mysqli, PEAR:DB, and PDO.

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There are now (at least) three choices you can use for communicating from PHP to MySQL or another database: the native library, PEAR:DB, and PDO, as well as a large number of other database abstraction implementations. What features does each of these offer and in what situations should you use each one?

Stream: PHP

Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

Laura Thomson is a trainer, programmer, consultant, and writer based at the School of Computer Science and IT at RMIT University in Melbourne. She has many years experience programming with PHP and is the co-author of the books "PHP and MySQL Web Development" (now in 3e, Developer's Library 2004) and "MySQL Tutorial" (MySQL Press 2003). She has previously worked for the Boston Consulting Group, in the telecommunications industry, and as a freelance contractor. She is currently completing her PhD in the area of Web Personalization Frameworks.