This means that it is easier for your application to support multiple database servers. Table abstraction is a way
to represent the database tables and rows as PHP objects. This allows for the rest of your application to interact
with PHP and never need to know that there is an underlying database.
5.1 Database abstraction with Zend_Db_Adapter
The subject of database abstraction appears to be a religious one with many developers claiming that such
layers are a performance drain and serve no useful purpose. This belief comes from the fact that to get the best
from a database engine, you have to understand how the engine works and use its specific interpretation of
SQL to get the best from it. On the other hand, other developers wouldn??™t dream of not using a database
abstraction layer and argue that it allows them to migrate easily from one database to another and their
applications to be distributed more widely.
As always in such debates, it all depends on what the task is. If you are developing an application that
needs to extract the maximum performance out of the database, such as say Google, then coding for one
database is clearly the way forward. If you are writing an application that you intend to sell to customers, then
supporting multiple databases makes your product more desirable as your customer will want to standardize
the database servers used wherever possible.
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