PHP PDO Explained: What Is It & Why Use It?

PDO, which stands for PHP Data Objects, is an extension module for PHP that is used to establish connections and perform database operations between PHP applications and databases.

1. The PDO provides a unified interface for connecting to different types of databases, such as MySQL, SQLite, Oracle, and more. It supports multiple database drivers and allows for easy switching and expanding of database types.
2. Prepared Statements: PDO allows the use of prepared statements to execute SQL queries and update operations. Prepared statements can improve performance and prevent SQL injection attacks.
3. Transaction processing: PDO supports transaction processing, allowing for the initiation, submission, or rollback of a transaction. Transactions can be used to ensure the atomicity of a set of database operations, meaning either all succeed or all fail.
4. Error handling: PDO offers a robust error handling mechanism that can capture and handle errors in database operations. It also supports custom error handling functions to execute specific actions when an error occurs.
5. Data type conversion: PDO is able to automatically convert data returned from the database into PHP data types, for example, converting a date and time field in the database into a PHP DateTime object.

In general, PDO offers a convenient, secure, and portable way to access and manipulate databases, allowing PHP developers to better manage and handle database operations.