Connect PHP to MySQL Using PDO (Safe Setup)

PDO is the recommended way to talk to MySQL in modern PHP because it supports prepared statements and clean error handling.

Step 1: Create database config

Create config.php:

<?php
$DB_HOST = "localhost";
$DB_NAME = "tutorial_app";
$DB_USER = "root";
$DB_PASS = "";

$dsn = "mysql:host=$DB_HOST;dbname=$DB_NAME;charset=utf8mb4";

try {
  $pdo = new PDO($dsn, $DB_USER, $DB_PASS, [
    PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE => PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION,
    PDO::ATTR_DEFAULT_FETCH_MODE => PDO::FETCH_ASSOC,
  ]);
} catch (PDOException $e) {
  die("Database connection failed");
}
?>

Why charset utf8mb4 matters

It supports emojis and full Unicode. Without it, some characters break.

Best practice

Do not echo real database errors in production. Log them.

Next: Prepared statements, the #1 SQL injection defense.