Source of: /manual/en/intro.pdo.php
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<div id="intro.pdo" class="preface">
<h1 class="title">Introduction</h1>
<p class="para">
The <i>PHP Data Objects</i> (<acronym>PDO</acronym>) 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 <a href="pdo.drivers.php" class="link">database-specific
PDO driver</a> to access a database server.
</p>
<p class="para">
PDO provides a <em class="emphasis">data-access</em> 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
<em class="emphasis">not</em> provide a <em class="emphasis">database</em>
abstraction; it doesn't rewrite SQL or emulate missing features. You
should use a full-blown abstraction layer if you need that facility.
</p>
<p class="para">
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.
</p>
</div><?php manual_footer(); ?>
