PDO::prepare

Description

Prepares an SQL statement to be executed by the PDOStatement::execute() method. The SQL statement can contain zero or more named (:name) or question mark (?) parameter markers for which real values will be substituted when the statement is executed. You cannot use both named and question mark parameter markers within the same SQL statement; pick one or the other parameter style.

You must include a unique parameter marker for each value you wish to pass in to the statement when you call PDOStatement::execute(). You cannot use a named parameter marker of the same name twice in a prepared statement. You cannot bind multiple values to a single named parameter in, for example, the IN() clause of an SQL statement.

Calling PDO::prepare() and PDOStatement::execute() for statements that will be issued multiple times with different parameter values optimizes the performance of your application by allowing the driver to negotiate client and/or server side caching of the query plan and meta information, and helps to prevent SQL injection attacks by eliminating the need to manually quote the parameters.

PDO will emulate prepared statements/bound parameters for drivers that do not natively support them, and can also rewrite named or question mark style parameter markers to something more appropriate, if the driver supports one style but not the other.

Parameters

Return Values

If the database server successfully prepares the statement, PDO::prepare() returns a PDOStatement object. If the database server cannot successfully prepare the statement, PDO::prepare() returns FALSE.

Examples

<?php
/* Execute a prepared statement by passing an array of values */
$sql = 'SELECT name, colour, calories
    FROM fruit
    WHERE calories < :calories AND colour = :colour';
$sth = $dbh->prepare($sql, array(PDO::ATTR_CURSOR, PDO::CURSOR_FWDONLY));
$sth->execute(array(':calories' => 150, ':colour' => 'red'));
$red = $sth->fetchAll();
$sth->execute(array(':calories' => 175, ':colour' => 'yellow'));
$yellow = $sth->fetchAll();
?>

<?php
/* Execute a prepared statement by passing an array of values */
$sth = $dbh->prepare('SELECT name, colour, calories
    FROM fruit
    WHERE calories < ? AND colour = ?');
$sth->execute(array(150, 'red'));
$red = $sth->fetchAll();
$sth->execute(array(175, 'yellow'));
$yellow = $sth->fetchAll();
?>

See Also