MySQL vs MySQLi when using PHP

Php Problem Overview

Which is better, MySQL or MySQLi? And why? Which should I use?

I mean better not just in terms of performance, but any other relevant feature.

Php Solutions

Solution 1 - Php

If you have a look at MySQL Improved Extension Overview, it should tell you everything you need to know about the differences between the two.

The main useful features are:

an Object-oriented interface
support for prepared statements
support for multiple statements
support for transactions
enhanced debugging capabilities
embedded server support.

Solution 2 - Php

There is a manual page dedicated to help choosing between mysql, mysqli and PDO at

The PHP team recommends mysqli or PDO_MySQL for new development:

> It is recommended to use either the mysqli or PDO_MySQL extensions. It is not recommended to use the old mysql extension for new development. A detailed feature comparison matrix is provided below. The overall performance of all three extensions is considered to be about the same. Although the performance of the extension contributes only a fraction of the total run time of a PHP web request. Often, the impact is as low as 0.1%.

The page also has a feature matrix comparing the extension APIs. The main differences between mysqli and mysql API are as follows:

                               mysqli     mysql
Development Status             Active     Maintenance only
Lifecycle                      Active     Long Term Deprecation Announced*
Recommended                    Yes        No
OOP API                        Yes        No
Asynchronous Queries           Yes        No
Server-Side Prep. Statements   Yes        No
Stored Procedures              Yes        No
Multiple Statements            Yes        No
Transactions                   Yes        No
MySQL 5.1+ functionality       Yes        No

_{* http://news.php.net/php.internals/53799</sub>}

There is an additional feature matrix comparing the libraries (new mysqlnd versus libmysql) at

http://www.php.net/manual/en/mysqlinfo.library.choosing.php

and a very thorough blog article at

http://blog.ulf-wendel.de/2012/php-mysql-why-to-upgrade-extmysql/

Solution 3 - Php

I have abandoned using mysqli. It is simply too unstable. I've had queries that crash PHP using mysqli but work just fine with the mysql package. Also mysqli crashes on LONGTEXT columns. This bug has been raised in various forms since at least 2005 and remains broken. I'd honestly like to use prepared statements but mysqli just isn't reliable enough (and noone seems to bother fixing it). If you really want prepared statements go with PDO.

Solution 4 - Php

MySQLi stands for MySQL improved. It's an object-oriented interface to the MySQL bindings which makes things easier to use. It also offers support for prepared statements (which are very useful). If you're on PHP 5 use MySQLi.

Solution 5 - Php

What is better is PDO; it's a less crufty interface and also provides the same features as MySQLi.

Using prepared statements is good because it eliminates SQL injection possibilities; using server-side prepared statements is bad because it increases the number of round-trips.

Solution 6 - Php

for me, prepared statements is a must-have feature. more exactly, parameter binding (which only works on prepared statements). it's the only really sane way to insert strings into SQL commands. i really don't trust the 'escaping' functions. the DB connection is a binary protocol, why use an ASCII-limited sub-protocol for parameters?

Content Type	Original Author	Original Content on Stackoverflow
Question	Anand	View Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - Php	Mark Davidson	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - Php	Gordon	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - Php	cletus	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - Php	Ross	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 5 - Php	MarkR	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 6 - Php	Javier	View Answer on Stackoverflow