Needed software:

1. install php server
   • https://www.php.net/downloads.php
2. install mySQL
   • https://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql-installation-excerpt/5.7/en/
3. PDO

Two popular option to connect PHP to mySQL:

1. mySQLi -
2. PDO

After some research, I like PDO more than mySQLi because it offers better abstraction from SQL statements and is consistent among multiple database - Guide to install; - https://www.php.net/manual/en/pdo.installation.php

PDO how to enable: - Ensure you enable the PDO_MySQL Driver to use PDO.

LINUX: 
    - sudo apt-get install php-pdo php-mysql

WINDOWS: 
- First, find the php.ini ( should be inside the php directory when you install php ) - On linux, you can use the php --ini to find where that file is store 
- Use a editor to edit the file and find the a line or something similar
    - ;extension=pdo_mysql.dll
and uncomment it by removing the ; . After that, PDO driver is enabled 

After that, for both windows and linux do: 
uncomment this line inside the php.ini file: 
    - extension=pdo_mysql

PDO Documentation: https://www.php.net/manual/en/book.pdo.php

How to run:

1. Using a PHP server (Recommended):

   • Download the PHP Server extension from VS code and right click on 'index.php' to Serve the project

2. Manually install php server and use the command line. Run 'php <path_to_filename>' to run a small php code for testing purpose