MySQL vs MySQLi when using PHP [closed]

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.

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

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

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}

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/