php - mysqli, OOP vs Procedural

Question

I just saw this for the first time. I had no idea you can instantiate a mysqli class by doing something like

new mysqli( $host, $username, $password, $db );

This is brand new to me...Every tutorial I have seen online or in books when connecting to database does something like this:

$conn = mysqli_connect( $host, $username, $password, $db );

if ( !$conn ) {
    die( 'Sorry, could not connect');
}

Is there a reason why most tutorials do it the procedural way? Even in tutorials I have seen on creating a separate database class, tell me to use the procedural style code...

What's the difference with mysqli procedural vs oop? Is there any? Do I have to install any extensions of some kind or can I just start using in my code? Total newb here, so not really sure.

Also, when is it a good idea to use PDO vs mysqli? Is PDO used most commonly by developers that work on large scale Enterprise applications? Or is simply a matter of preference.

Thanks for any help...

learning php has quickly become addictive...I just want to know more and more.

Answer 1

99% of PHP tutorials on the internet are outdated, advocate terrible code or are written by people that probably shouldn't teach PHP (and commonly all of the above). You should find the handful of good ones.

PDO is generally favoured over mysqli by developers, including me. For one, it can handle many more databases than just MySQL.