Natively Connect to Databricks Data in PHP



The CData ODBC driver for Databricks enables you to create PHP applications with connectivity to Databricks data. Leverage the native support for ODBC in PHP.

Drop the CData ODBC Driver for Databricks into your LAMP or WAMP stack to build Databricks-connected Web applications. This article shows how to use PHP's ODBC built-in functions to connect to Databricks data, execute queries, and output the results.

About Databricks Data Integration

Accessing and integrating live data from Databricks has never been easier with CData. Customers rely on CData connectivity to:

  • Access all versions of Databricks from Runtime Versions 9.1 - 13.X to both the Pro and Classic Databricks SQL versions.
  • Leave Databricks in their preferred environment thanks to compatibility with any hosting solution.
  • Secure authenticate in a variety of ways, including personal access token, Azure Service Principal, and Azure AD.
  • Upload data to Databricks using Databricks File System, Azure Blog Storage, and AWS S3 Storage.

While many customers are using CData's solutions to migrate data from different systems into their Databricks data lakehouse, several customers use our live connectivity solutions to federate connectivity between their databases and Databricks. These customers are using SQL Server Linked Servers or Polybase to get live access to Databricks from within their existing RDBMs.

Read more about common Databricks use-cases and how CData's solutions help solve data problems in our blog: What is Databricks Used For? 6 Use Cases.


Getting Started


Configure a DSN

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

To connect to a Databricks cluster, set the properties as described below.

Note: The needed values can be found in your Databricks instance by navigating to Clusters, and selecting the desired cluster, and selecting the JDBC/ODBC tab under Advanced Options.

  • Server: Set to the Server Hostname of your Databricks cluster.
  • HTTPPath: Set to the HTTP Path of your Databricks cluster.
  • Token: Set to your personal access token (this value can be obtained by navigating to the User Settings page of your Databricks instance and selecting the Access Tokens tab).

Establish a Connection

Open the connection to Databricks by calling the odbc_connect or odbc_pconnect methods. To close connections, use odbc_close or odbc_close_all.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Databricks Source","user","password");

Connections opened with odbc_connect are closed when the script ends. Connections opened with the odbc_pconnect method are still open after the script ends. This enables other scripts to share that connection when they connect with the same credentials. By sharing connections among your scripts, you can save system resources, and queries execute faster.

$conn = odbc_pconnect("CData ODBC Databricks Source","user","password"); ... odbc_close($conn); //persistent connection must be closed explicitly

Create Prepared Statements

Create prepared statements and parameterized queries with the odbc_prepare function.

$query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE Country = ?");

Execute Queries

Execute prepared statements with odbc_execute.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Databricks Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE Country = ?"); $success = odbc_execute($query, array('US'));

Execute nonparameterized queries with odbc_exec.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Databricks Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT City, CompanyName FROM Customers WHERE Country = 'US'");

Process Results

Access a row in the result set as an array with the odbc_fetch_array function.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Databricks data Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT City, CompanyName FROM Customers WHERE Country = 'US'"); while($row = odbc_fetch_array($query)){ echo $row["City"] . "\n"; }

Display the result set in an HTML table with the odbc_result_all function.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC Databricks data Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE Country = ?"); $success = odbc_execute($query, array('US')); if($success) odbc_result_all($query);

More Example Queries

You will find complete information on the driver's supported SQL in the help documentation. The code examples above are Databricks-specific adaptations of the PHP community documentation for all ODBC functions.

Ready to get started?

Download a free trial of the Databricks ODBC Driver to get started:

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Learn more:

Databricks Icon Databricks ODBC Driver

The Databricks ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live data from Databricks, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access Databricks data like you would a database - read, write, and update through a standard ODBC Driver interface.