How to add PHP to Linux Mint 20 (with Apache2 & MySQL already instaled)

Question

Linux newbie here and just installed Linux Mint version 20. To install Apache, PHP, and MySQl on the system I chose the following instructions I found on the web...

1 - sudo apt install apache2
2 - sudo apt install mysql-server
3 - sudo apt install php7.4
4 - sudo apt install libapache2-mod-php7.4
5 - sudo apt install php7.4-mysql
6 - sudo service apache2 restart

I have already executed the first two lines of the above am ready to do the remaining steps and install php but first... to double check...
My Questions:
a - Are the steps listed above correct?
b - Line two in the above instructions installs mysql-server so why is mysql listed again in line five?
c - What about php7.4-mysqli ?
c1 - Should I remove mysql-server and install mysqli-server?
c2 - Should I install php7.4-mysqli instead of php7.4-mysql?

Thanks for any help. I don't want to mess up on this install.

-- Note: I'll be using Apache, PHP, and MySQL only on the local machine for developing and testing code before it goes live on the net.

-- Note: There are many different and confusing steps on the web so I chose the above steps.

-- Note: The instructions used php7.0 but I used php7.4 because... sudo apt search php7 seems to tell me php version php7.4 is the latest in the repository

Answer 1

a - Are the steps listed above correct?

they are great

b - Line two in the above instructions installs mysql-server so why is mysql listed again in line five?

in line 5 is not mysql the server, it is a mysql library for php

c - What about php7.4-mysqli ?

see answer above

mysql-server and install mysqli-server?

I am not sure but I think there is no such package called mysqli-server, at least in debian we do not have it. mysqli is not a server

you can check it out :

apt search <package>

php7.4-mysqli instead of php7.4-mysql?

mysqli is a extension of php but there is no such package.

c1 - Should I remove...

c2 - Should I install ...

you can not because there are no such packages ..

Answer 2

This worked for me on Linux Mint.

COMMANDS

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install php7.2
sudo apt-get install php7.2-sqlite3
sudo apt-get install php7.2-curl

THESE MODULES WERE ALREADY INCLUDED WITH PHP:

sudo apt-get install libapache2-mod-php7.2
sudo apt-get install php7.2-common
sudo apt-get install php7.2-cli
sudo apt-get install php7.2-json