PHP 5 Unleashed

Chapter 26. PHP's dba Functions

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Preparations and Settings

• Creating a File-Based Database

• Writing Data

• Reading Data

• Sample Application

Using databases is one of the key applications for PHP-driven websites. However, a price difference still exists between hosting packages with MySQL and without MySQL. PHP 5 comes with SQLite, but some hosters have already announced that they will disable SQLite in their database-less hosting packages (obviously to persuade users to buy the more expensive MySQL package). However, one little-known kind of database access in PHP is enabled with most hosters—sometimes without their knowledge. We are talking about PHP's dba functions, short for database abstraction layer functions. With these functions, ...