What are the benefits of using PDO over mysqli in PHP for database interactions, and how can developers leverage these benefits in their code?
Using PDO over mysqli in PHP for database interactions offers several benefits, including support for multiple database types, prepared statements for preventing SQL injection attacks, and object-oriented syntax for easier code readability and maintenance. Developers can leverage these benefits by utilizing PDO's database abstraction layer to write more secure and portable database queries in their PHP applications.
// Using PDO for database interactions
try {
$pdo = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=mydatabase', 'username', 'password');
$pdo->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
$stmt = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = :id");
$stmt->bindParam(':id', $userId, PDO::PARAM_INT);
$stmt->execute();
$user = $stmt->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
// Use $user data as needed
} catch(PDOException $e) {
echo "Error: " . $e->getMessage();
}