Connecting to MySQLi

 @mysqli_connect('localhost', 'user', 'password') 

If you want to use ext/mysqli, the switch for with-mysql has to point to /path/to/mysql_config. Windows users have to use the files php_mysqli.dll and libmysqli.dll, the rest of the previous install instructions remain unchanged.

Connecting to MySQLi (mysqli_connect.php)

 <?php   if ($db = @mysqli_connect('localhost', 'user',     'password')) {     mysqli_select_db($db, 'phrasebook');     echo 'Connected to the database.';     mysqli_close($db);   } else {     echo 'Connection failed.';   } ?> 

Connecting to MySQL using ext/mysqli works just like using ext/mysql, however an i is appended to the function names.

Keep in mind that the different variable order for mysql(i)_select_db()is one of the prominent differences between the two extensions. The newer one wants the database handle first. Another difference between these two extensions is that the database handle is a mandatory parameter whenever used. With ext/mysql, the last handle created by mysql_connect() is the current default handle for the page. One more difference: mysqli_connect() accepts the name of the database as an optional fourth parameter, so you can avoid using mysqli_select_db().

NOTE

Alternatively, the mysqli extension also offers an object-oriented syntax to access a data source. Although this chapter uses the functional approach to make a transition from ext/mysql to ext/mysqli as painless as possible, the following shows what the object-oriented approach looks like:

 $db = new mysqli('localhost', 'user',   'password'); $db->select_db('phrasebook'); $db->close();