What are the advantages of using PDO or mysqli_ over the mysql_ extension in PHP for database operations?

The mysql_ extension in PHP is deprecated and has been removed in PHP 7. It is recommended to use either PDO (PHP Data Objects) or mysqli_ (MySQL Improved) for database operations in PHP as they offer more features, better performance, and are more secure.

// Using PDO for database operations
try {
    $pdo = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=mydatabase', 'username', 'password');
    $stmt = $pdo->prepare('SELECT * FROM mytable');
    $stmt->execute();
    $results = $stmt->fetchAll();
    foreach ($results as $row) {
        // Process each row
    }
} catch (PDOException $e) {
    echo 'Error: ' . $e->getMessage();
}

// Using mysqli_ for database operations
$mysqli = new mysqli('localhost', 'username', 'password', 'mydatabase');
if ($mysqli->connect_error) {
    die('Connect Error (' . $mysqli->connect_errno . ') ' . $mysqli->connect_error);
}

$query = "SELECT * FROM mytable";
if ($result = $mysqli->query($query)) {
    while ($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
        // Process each row
    }
    $result->free();
}
$mysqli->close();