PHP Data Objects (PDO)

PHP Data Objects (PDO) is an interface that abstract access to databases. The same interface may be used to access different databases.

PDO may access 10 different databases :

  • CUBRID

  • MS SQL Server

  • Firebird

  • IBM

  • Informix

  • MySQL

  • MS SQL Server

  • Oracle

  • ODBC and DB2

  • PostgreSQL

  • SQLite 2 and 3

The different access relies on drivers and DSN to connect to a database. The DSN describes the server to reach, and the driver handles the communication protocol.

<?php
  $dbh = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=test', $user, $pass);
?>

Documentation

Related : Data Source Name (DSN), RDBMS, Abstraction Layer