PDOException "could not find driver": Troubleshooting and Solution

When encountering a PDOException indicating "could not find driver," the issue could lie in the absence of the necessary PDO driver for MySQL.

Identifying the Problem

The provided code snippet:

$dbh = new PDO('mysql:host=' . DB_HOST . ';dbname=' . DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASS)

attempts to connect to a MySQL database using the PDO driver. However, the exception suggests that the PDO driver is missing.

Solution: Installing PDO Driver

To resolve this issue, you need to install the pdo_mysql module. This module provides the PDO driver for MySQL and enables PHP to interact with MySQL databases.

To install the pdo_mysql module, run the following command:

sudo apt-get install php-pdo-mysql

Verifying Installation

Once the module is installed, you can verify its installation by viewing your PHP configuration information:

phpinfo();

Look for the following section in the output:

pdo_mysql

PDO Driver for MySQL, client library version => 5.1.44

If this section is present, the pdo_mysql module is installed and you should be able to connect to your MySQL database using PDO.