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

via Why you Should be using PHP’s PDO for Database Access | Nettuts+.

PDO is a fantastic addition to PHP to make using databases, especially MySQL, extremely easy. The Class and Obj fetch routines are awesome. I spent a lot of time awhile back constructing a MySQL interface without realizing PDO was so convenient. If I had only known! It was not a waste of time however, because I learned a great deal about interacting with MySQL and programming in PHP.