MySQL vs MySQLi

Difference Between MySQL and MySQLi

MySQL vs MySQLi both are Relational Database Management Systems. To recall, a Relational DBMS is modeled upon entities that represent real-world relationships. The data is stored in tabular format and is related to other data through normalization and constraints.

MySQL – MySQL is an open-source relational database management system. It is the most widely used database management system. Some heavyweight application names include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. It is procedural in approach.

MySQLi – MySQLi is a relational database driver for providing an interface to the MySQL databases. The letter i in MySQLi stands for improved. It is mostly used in PHP scripting language. It is object-oriented in approach.

Head to Head Comparison between MySQL vs MySQLi

Below are the top 9 differences between MySQL and MySQLi:

Key Differences between MySQL and MySQLi

Let us discuss some of the major differences between MySQL and MySQLi.

• Essentially, MySQLi is not a database. It is an improved interface to access the functionality provided by the MySQL database. This improved interface eases the querying task for the developers.
• Another better thing about MySQLi is the object-oriented support to the underlying MySQL database. This helps programmers create connection objects and perform all the tasks through methods in the connection object’s class. At the same time, for applications where the queries to the database are simple CRUD operations, MySQL performs as good as MySQLi.
• When it comes to security, MySQLi has a prevention mechanism for SQL Injection attacks. Also, MySQLi has support for all the functions of MySQL with an added advantage of APIs. The APIs give MySQLi an edge over MySQL. Developers often find it easier to use APIs rather than formulate their own queries for redundant tasks. To add to this, great language compatibility and community support also motivate PHP programmers to use MySQLi over MySQL.

MySQL vs MySQLi Comparison Table

Let us discuss the topmost comparisons between MySQL vs MySQLi.

Basis of comparison	MySQL	MySQLi
DBMS	Yes – MySQL is a full-fledged relational database management system.	No – MySQLi is an extension to the interface provided by MySQL. It uses MySQL databases in the underlying architecture.
Programming Paradigm	Procedural – MySQL has a procedural approach to querying the database. The result object of the query is considered as a step in the procedure.	Dual (Procedural & Object Oriented) – MySQLi has a dual approach. For users migrating from the MySQL interface, there is support for a procedural approach. However, you are free to choose the object-oriented approach as well. In the object-oriented approach, the focus is on the result object. Every step revolves around the MySQLi connection object. The functions are grouped around the object by their purpose. However, there is no significant performance difference between both the approaches. You are free to choose the interface you feel comfortable with.
Interface	Command Line Interface – MySQL comes with a command-line interface. It is similar to a DOS console. The SQL instructions are given as commands and the results are displayed in tabular format in the console itself.	Graphical / Programmatic Interface – MySQLi has a graphical interface to the underlying MySQL databases. You can give certain commands with button clicks and the results are displayed on a separate results page. There is also a programmatic interface where you can code the commands leveraging the exposed APIs.
Written in Language	C and C++ – MySQL has been coded in C and C++ languages.	PHP – MySQLi is written in PHP and is primarily used with PHP scripting language only.
SQL Injection	Prone to SQL Injection attacks – MySQL has time and again suffered from SQL Injection attacks. A hacker injects malicious query in user input fields, which gets executed on the server. This leads to the compromise of data security.	Prevents SQL Injection – MySQLi has prevention mechanisms in place for SQL Injection attacks. When a SQL query is sent through a user input field, MySQLi returns an error and does not execute the query.
Transactions support	ACID transactions – MySQL’s InnoDB engine has full ACID transactions support. The ACID properties of a transaction stand for Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability. This ensures that the transactions are accurate, complete every time and data integrity is not compromised with.	API support for MySQL transactions – MySQLi provides API support for the underlying MySQL transactions. This essentially means that transactions in MySQLi can be controlled through API calls. There are APIs for enabling or disabling the auto-commit mode, committing a transaction or rolling back a transaction.
Multiple Statement Support	MySQL allows sending multiple statements to the server at once for execution. This saves the round-trip time from the client to the server. All the result sets returned from the server must be consumed by the client.	Yes – MySQLi has support for the multiple statements in the underlying MySQL database. This support is provided through the multi_query method of the MySQLi connection object.
Prepared Statement Support	MySQL database has prepared statements. A prepared statement is used to execute the same query multiple times with higher efficiency. The prepared statement has two stages – prepare and execute. When a statement is prepared, the server does a compilation of the statement, prepares a statement template and allocates necessary resources. During the execution phase, the client sends the actual parameters to the server and the server executes the previously prepared template with the parameter values and allocated resources. Thus, the statement can be executed multiple times with higher efficiency.	Yes – MySQLi has support for prepared statements in the underlying MySQL database. This support is provided through prepare, bind_param and execute methods of the MySQLi connection object.
Released	23rd May 1995	Released in multiple packages in 2004-05

Conclusion

MySQLi is definitely an improved version of MySQL. But choosing one depends on your technology stack. PHP has great support for MySQLi, but the same is not the case with other languages. If your application is a part of the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl/Python/PHP) stack, you are better off using MySQL. This is because MySQL has great community support for issues arising from LAMP architecture. So, choose wisely and keep learning.

Recommended Articles

This has been a guide to MySQL vs MySQLi. Here we also discuss the key differences with infographics and comparison table. You can also go through our other suggested articles to learn more–

1. MySQL String functions
2. MySQL vs Oracle
3. What is NoSQL Database
4. MySQL vs SQLite | Top Differences
5. Top Differences of Cassandra vs MySQL