What is PDO & why shold we use use PDO?

PDO - PHP Data Objects - is a database access layer providing a uniform method of access to multiple databases.

PHP Data Objects (PDO) provide methods for prepared statements and working with objects that will make you far more productive!

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_DBLIB ( FreeTDS / Microsoft SQL Server / Sybase )
• PDO_FIREBIRD ( Firebird/Interbase 6 )
• PDO_IBM ( IBM DB2 )
• PDO_INFORMIX ( IBM Informix Dynamic Server )
• PDO_MYSQL ( MySQL 3.x/4.x/5.x )
• PDO_OCI ( Oracle Call Interface )
• PDO_ODBC ( ODBC v3 (IBM DB2, unixODBC and win32 ODBC) )
• PDO_PGSQL ( PostgreSQL )
• PDO_SQLITE ( SQLite 3 and SQLite 2 )
• PDO_4D ( 4D )

How to connect to a database with both of these:

// PDO
$pdo = new PDO("mysql:host=localhost;dbname=database", 'username', 'password');

// mysqli, procedural way
$mysqli = mysqli_connect('localhost','username','password','database');

// mysqli, object oriented way
$mysqli = new mysqli('localhost','username','password','database');