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What are the advantages of using MySQLi over MySQL?
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Reasons why you should use MySQLi extension instead of the MySQL extension are many: MySQLi gives you prepared statements - a safer way of sending data to MySQL and protecting you from SQL injection. This alone should be enough for always choosing MySQLi over MySQL. MySQLi enables most of the MySQL features.
Basically, MySQL is the old database driver, and MySQLi is the Improved driver. The "i" stands for "improved" so it is MySQL improved. MySQLi can be done procedural and object-oriented whereas MySQL can only be used procedurally. Mysqli also supports prepared statements which protect from SQL Injection.
The MySQL extension is very slightly faster than MySQLi in most benchmarks I've seen reported. The difference is so slight, however, that this should probably not be your criterion for deciding between the two.
Both MySQLi and PDO have their advantages: PDO will work on 12 different database systems, whereas MySQLi will only work with MySQL databases. So, if you have to switch your project to use another database, PDO makes the process easy. You only have to change the connection string and a few queries.
See the docs:
What is PHP's mysqli Extension?
The mysqli extension, or as it is sometimes known, the MySQL improved extension, was developed to take advantage of new features found in MySQL systems versions 4.1.3 and newer. The mysqli extension is included with PHP versions 5 and later.
The mysqli extension has a number of benefits, the key enhancements over the mysql extension being:
- Object-oriented interface
- Support for Prepared Statements
- Support for Multiple Statements
- Support for Transactions
- Enhanced debugging capabilities
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