PDO &reftitle.intro; The PHP Data Objects (PDO) extension defines a lightweight, consistent interface for accessing databases in PHP. Each database driver that implements the PDO interface can expose database-specific features as regular extension functions. Note that you cannot perform any database functions using the PDO extension by itself; you must use a database-specific PDO driver to access a database server. PDO provides a data-access abstraction layer, which means that, regardless of which database you're using, you use the same functions to issue queries and fetch data. PDO does not provide a database abstraction; it doesn't rewrite SQL or emulate missing features. You should use a full-blown abstraction layer if you need that facility. PDO ships with PHP 5.1, and is available as a PECL extension for PHP 5.0; PDO requires the new OO features in the core of PHP 5, and so will not run with earlier versions of PHP. &reference.pdo.setup; &reference.pdo.constants; &reference.pdo.connections; &reference.pdo.transactions; &reference.pdo.prepared-statements; &reference.pdo.error-handling; &reference.pdo.lobs; &reference.pdo.pdo; &reference.pdo.pdostatement; &reference.pdo.pdoexception; &reference.pdo.drivers;