Determining PDO Availability in PHP

If you're considering using PDO for your PHP applications, it's crucial to verify its availability on your hosting server. Here's how you can test PDO's setup and functionality specifically for MySQL:

PHPinfo Approach

PHPinfo() provides a detailed report on your PHP configuration, including installed modules and extensions. Access PHPinfo using the following script:

Locate the "PDO Drivers" section in the report to confirm that the MySQL driver ("pdo_mysql") is present.

Specific Constant Check

Certain PDO drivers define specific constants. For instance, for MySQL, the constant "PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_LOCAL_INFILE" is defined. You can use the var_dump() function to check for its presence:

The output will be "true" if the MySQL driver is installed.

CLI Command

You can also use the command line to check for PDO:

$ php -m

This will list all loaded PHP extensions, including PDO and specific database drivers (e.g., "pdo_mysql").

Other Options

Alternative methods for checking if PDO is available include:

• extension_loaded('PDO'): Returns a boolean indicating if PDO is loaded.
• extension_loaded('pdo_mysql'): Specifically checks for the MySQL PDO driver.
• get_loaded_extensions(): Returns an array of all loaded extensions; you can then search for specific PDO drivers in this array.