Using PDO

[Lyleyboy]

Hey all,

 

I'm just starting to get on the PDO bandwagon with PHP.

 

One thing I do a lot is to fetch the result of a query straight into a variable using list. Something like

list($name) = mysql_fetch_row(mysql_query("SELECT name FROM names WHERE userID='1'"));

 

Is there a similar thing I can do with PDO rather than having to loop through with a while or similar.

 

Thanks in advance.

[AyKay47]

Look at example #1 on the bindColumn() PHP manual page.

PDO::FetchBound mode is what you are after.

[Lyleyboy]

May be me misreading but that seems to loop through a record set.

What I'm looking for is a query that will only ever return one value which then dumps the value into a variable.

 

Cheers

[trq]

That is a terrible coding practice I'm sorry, and is something I would definitely try not to replicate again ever.

 

What if mysql_query fails? Using your method you have absolutely no way of handling it at all properly.

[Lyleyboy]

Yeah I accept that and I always code round it, to ensure that the value is present and in the correct format.

 

So what's the easiest way then? Do I still have to loop through, even though there will only be one record posted.

 

I'm kind of hoping there will be an easier way.

 

Thanks

[AyKay47]

You shouldn't accept it, that is horrible coding practice.

Both the SQL statement and the mysql_query() return should be stored in variables and checked.

But, to address you question, use that example without the looping logic if the query is to grab only 1 row.

[Lyleyboy]

Ok, thanks AyKay I'll give it a shot.

[DavidAM]

While I agree with @trq, let's just be clear about this looping. It is never required that you loop through a result set. If you know it returns a single row (or only want the first row), you can leave out any while or for processing and just fetch the first row.

 

Well, that's the way it is/was in mysql, and I do it that way with mysqli. I have not played with PDO yet, but I see no reason this should not apply there as well.