Deprecated MySQL extension in PHP 5.5.x

Question

According to the PHP manual, and a lot of sources on the internet as of PHP 5.5.x the whole original MySQL extension is deprecated. I have a really robust web application th

Answer 1

Yes, the application will be inaccessible whenever your webhost upgrades to the PHP version where the extension is removed. Note that this wont happen in PHP 5.5 where extension is "only" flagged as deprecated. Exactly when the extension will be removed is afaik unknown atm.

Regarding the upgrade question: It really depends, do you expect your application to out-live mysql_*? Does your web host update PHP frequently? If they are slow with updates you might be able to run the application for years.

Performance/security-wise it would be preferable to change to prepared statements.