Connect to MySQL with PDO in 5 Minutes

Establish a secure and modern database connection in PHP using PDO , ideal for scalable applications.

📌 Why Use PDO?

PDO (PHP Data Objects) is a database access layer that provides a consistent interface for working with multiple databases. It's more secure and flexible than using mysqli_* functions and supports prepared statements to prevent SQL injection.

🔧 Basic PDO Connection

<?php
$host = 'localhost';
$db   = 'testdb';
$user = 'root';
$pass = '';
$charset = 'utf8mb4';

$dsn = "mysql:host=$host;dbname=$db;charset=$charset";
$options = [
  PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE            => PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION,
  PDO::ATTR_DEFAULT_FETCH_MODE => PDO::FETCH_ASSOC,
  PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES   => false,
];

try {
  $pdo = new PDO($dsn, $user, $pass, $options);
  echo "✅ Connected successfully!";
} catch (PDOException $e) {
  echo "❌ Connection failed: " . $e->getMessage();
}
?>

🧠 Code Explanation

• $dsn: Data source name, includes host, database, charset
• $options: Configuration for error handling and fetch modes
• PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION: Throws exceptions on errors
• PDO::FETCH_ASSOC: Returns associative arrays
• PDO::EMULATE_PREPARES: False for real prepared statements

✅ Best Practices

• Use try-catch blocks for handling connection failures
• Never expose raw connection errors in production
• Use .env files or configuration files to store credentials
• Always use UTF-8 to support international characters

🚀 What’s Next?

After connecting to the database, you can:

• Run SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE queries with $pdo->prepare()
• Use transactions with beginTransaction(), commit(), and rollBack()
• Fetch results using fetch() or fetchAll()