PHP 8.4.1 Released!

PDOStatement::bindParam

(PHP 5 >= 5.1.0, PHP 7, PHP 8, PECL pdo >= 0.1.0)

PDOStatement::bindParam Binds a parameter to the specified variable name

Description

public PDOStatement::bindParam(
    string|int $param,
    mixed &$var,
    int $type = PDO::PARAM_STR,
    int $maxLength = 0,
    mixed $driverOptions = null
): bool

Binds a PHP variable to a corresponding named or question mark placeholder in the SQL statement that was used to prepare the statement. Unlike PDOStatement::bindValue(), the variable is bound as a reference and will only be evaluated at the time that PDOStatement::execute() is called.

Most parameters are input parameters, that is, parameters that are used in a read-only fashion to build up the query (but may nonetheless be cast according to type). Some drivers support the invocation of stored procedures that return data as output parameters, and some also as input/output parameters that both send in data and are updated to receive it.

Parameters

param

Parameter identifier. For a prepared statement using named placeholders, this will be a parameter name of the form :name. For a prepared statement using question mark placeholders, this will be the 1-indexed position of the parameter.

var

Name of the PHP variable to bind to the SQL statement parameter.

type

Explicit data type for the parameter using the PDO::PARAM_* constants. To return an INOUT parameter from a stored procedure, use the bitwise OR operator to set the PDO::PARAM_INPUT_OUTPUT bits for the type parameter.

maxLength

Length of the data type. To indicate that a parameter is an OUT parameter from a stored procedure, you must explicitly set the length. Meaningful only when type parameter is PDO::PARAM_INPUT_OUTPUT.

driverOptions

Return Values

Returns true on success or false on failure.

Errors/Exceptions

Emits an error with level E_WARNING if the attribute PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE is set to PDO::ERRMODE_WARNING.

Throws a PDOException if the attribute PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE is set to PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION.

Examples

Example #1 Execute a prepared statement with named placeholders

<?php
/* Execute a prepared statement by binding PHP variables */
$calories = 150;
$colour = 'red';
$sth = $dbh->prepare('SELECT name, colour, calories
FROM fruit
WHERE calories < :calories AND colour = :colour'
);
$sth->bindParam('calories', $calories, PDO::PARAM_INT);
/* Names can be prefixed with colons ":" too (optional) */
$sth->bindParam(':colour', $colour, PDO::PARAM_STR);
$sth->execute();
?>

Example #2 Execute a prepared statement with question mark placeholders

<?php
/* Execute a prepared statement by binding PHP variables */
$calories = 150;
$colour = 'red';
$sth = $dbh->prepare('SELECT name, colour, calories
FROM fruit
WHERE calories < ? AND colour = ?'
);
$sth->bindParam(1, $calories, PDO::PARAM_INT);
$sth->bindParam(2, $colour, PDO::PARAM_STR);
$sth->execute();
?>

Example #3 Call a stored procedure with an INOUT parameter

<?php
/* Call a stored procedure with an INOUT parameter */
$colour = 'red';
$sth = $dbh->prepare('CALL puree_fruit(?)');
$sth->bindParam(1, $colour, PDO::PARAM_STR|PDO::PARAM_INPUT_OUTPUT, 12);
$sth->execute();
print
"After pureeing fruit, the colour is: $colour";
?>

See Also

add a note

User Contributed Notes 23 notes

up
247
atrandafirc at yahoo dot com
14 years ago
I know this has been said before but I'll write a note on it too because I think it's important to keep in mind:

If you use PDO bindParam to do a search with a LIKE condition you cannot put the percentages and quotes to the param placeholder '%:keyword%'.

This is WRONG:
"SELECT * FROM `users` WHERE `firstname` LIKE '%:keyword%'";

The CORRECT solution is to leave clean the placeholder like this:
"SELECT * FROM `users` WHERE `firstname` LIKE :keyword";

And then add the percentages to the php variable where you store the keyword:
$keyword = "%".$keyword."%";

And finally the quotes will be automatically added by PDO when executing the query so you don't have to worry about them.

So the full example would be:
<?php
// Get the keyword from query string
$keyword = $_GET['keyword'];
// Prepare the command
$sth = $dbh->prepare('SELECT * FROM `users` WHERE `firstname` LIKE :keyword');
// Put the percentage sing on the keyword
$keyword = "%".$keyword."%";
// Bind the parameter
$sth->bindParam(':keyword', $keyword, PDO::PARAM_STR);
?>
up
178
Vili
14 years ago
This works ($val by reference):
<?php
foreach ($params as $key => &$val) {
$sth->bindParam($key, $val);
}
?>

This will fail ($val by value, because bindParam needs &$variable):
<?php
foreach ($params as $key => $val) {
$sth->bindParam($key, $val);
}
?>
up
4
jcastromail at yahoo dot es
2 years ago
PHP 8.1 changed the way how this method works.

Now, the fourth method must not be null. It could be 0 (for an int) but it could not be null, otherwise, it will raise a deprecated warning.

old:
$sth->bindParam('calories', $calories, PDO::PARAM_INT);
new:
$sth->bindParam('calories', $calories, PDO::PARAM_INT,0);
up
51
Steve M
15 years ago
Note that when using PDOStatement::bindParam an integer is changed to a string value upon PDOStatement::execute(). (Tested with MySQL).

This can cause problems when trying to compare values using the === operator.

Example:
<?php
$active
= 1;
var_dump($active);
$ps->bindParam(":active", $active, PDO::PARAM_INT);
var_dump($active);
$ps->execute();
var_dump($active);
if (
$active === 1) {
// do something here
// note: this will fail since $active is now "1"
}
?>

results in:
int(1)
int(1)
string(1) "1"
up
9
pegas1981 at yandex dot ru
10 years ago
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff628166(v=sql.105).aspx

When binding null data to server columns of type varbinary, binary, or varbinary(max) you should specify binary encoding (PDO::SQLSRV_ENCODING_BINARY) using the $driver_options. See Constants for more information about encoding constants.
Support for PDO was added in version 2.0 of the Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server.

<?php
$db
= new PDO('sqlsrv:server=SQLSERVERNAME;Database=own_exchange', 'user', 'password');
$sql = "INSERT INTO dbo.files(file_name, file_source) VALUES(:file_name, :file_source)";
$stmt = $db->prepare($sql);
$stmt->bindParam(":file_name", $files->name, PDO::PARAM_STR);
$stmt->bindParam(":file_source", file_get_contents($files->tempName), PDO::PARAM_LOB, 0, PDO::SQLSRV_ENCODING_BINARY);
$stmt->execute();
?>
up
14
dhammari at q90 dot com
15 years ago
There seems to be some confusion about whether you can bind a single value to multiple identical placeholders. For example:

$sql = "SELECT * FROM user WHERE is_admin = :myValue AND is_deleted = :myValue ";

$params = array("myValue" => "0");

Some users have reported that attempting to bind a single parameter to multiple placeholders yields a parameter mismatch error in PHP version 5.2.0 and earlier. Starting with version 5.2.1, however, this seems to work just fine.

For details, see bug report 40417:
http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=40417
up
8
khkiley at adamsautomation dot com
12 years ago
SQL Server 2008 R2

If this was in the documentation, I didn't stumble across it. When using bound output parameters with a stored procedure, the output parameters are updated AFTER the LAST rowset has been processed.

If your stored procedure does not return any rowsets (no SELECT statements) then you are set, your output parameters will be ready as soon as the stored procedure is processed.

Otherwise you need to process the rows, and then:
<?php $stmt->nextRowset(); ?>

Once that is done for each returning rowset you will have access to the output parameters.
up
10
cyrylas at gmail dot com
13 years ago
Please note, that PDO format numbers according to current locale. So if, locale set number format to something else, that standard that query WILL NOT work properly.

For example:
in Polish locale (pl_PL) proper decimal separator is coma (","), so: 123,45, not 123.45. If we try bind 123.45 to the query, we will end up with coma in the query.

<?php
setlocale
(LC_ALL, 'pl_PL');
$sth = $dbh->prepare('SELECT name FROM products WHERE price < :price');
$sth->bindParam(':price', 123.45, PDO::PARAM_STR);
$sth->execute();
// result:
// SELECT name FROM products WHERE price < '123,45';
?>
up
7
Anonymous
18 years ago
A caution for those using bindParam() on a placeholder in a
LIKE '%...%' clause, the following code will likely not work:

<?php
$q
= "SELECT id, name FROM test WHERE name like '%:foo%'";
$s = "carrot";
$sth = $dbh->prepare($q);
$sth->bindParam(':foo', $s);
$sth->execute();
?>

What is needed is something like the following:

<?php
$s
= "%$s%";
$sth->bindParam(':foo', $s);
?>

This should work. Tested against mysql 4.1, PHP 5.1.3.
up
6
Mike Robinson
11 years ago
Note that with bindParam the second parameter is passed by reference. This means that the following will produce a warning if E_STRICT is enabled:

<?php
$stmt
->bindParam('type', $object->getType());

// Strict Standards: Only variables should be passed by reference in /path/to/file.php on line 123
?>

If the second parameter is not an actual variable, either set the result of $object->getType(); to a variable and use that variable in bindParam or use bindValue instead.
up
9
Filofox
18 years ago
Do not try to use the same named parameter twice in a single SQL statement, for example

<?php
$sql
= 'SELECT * FROM some_table WHERE some_value > :value OR some_value < :value';
$stmt = $dbh->prepare($sql);
$stmt->execute( array( ':value' => 3 ) );
?>

...this will return no rows and no error -- you must use each parameter once and only once. Apparently this is expected behavior (according to this bug report: http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=33886) because of portability issues.
up
4
jeffwa+php at gmail dot com
17 years ago
Took me forever to find this elsewhere in the notes in the manual, so I'd thought I'd put this tidbit here to help others in the future.

When using a LIKE search in MySQL along with a prepared statement, the *value* must have the appropriate parentheses attached before the bindParam() statement as such:

<?php
$dbc
= $GLOBALS['dbc'];
$sql = "SELECT * FROM `tbl_name` WHERE tbl_col LIKE ?";
$stmt = $dbc->prepare($sql);

$value = "%{$value}%";
$stmt->bindParam($i, $value, PDO::PARAM_STR);
?>

Trying to use
<?php
$stmt
->bindParam($i, "%{$value}%", PDO::PARAM_STR);
?>

will fail.
up
2
geompse at gmail dot com
14 years ago
if you are storing files (or binary data), using PARAM_LOB (and moreover trying to do this with Oracle), don't miss this page :

http://php.net/manual/en/pdo.lobs.php

You will there notice that PDO-PGSQL and PDO-OCI don't work the same at all : not the same argument nor the same behaviour.
up
3
Ofir Attia
10 years ago
/*
method for pdo class connection, you can add your cases by yourself and use it.
*/
class Conn{
....
....
private $stmt;
public function bind($parameter, $value, $var_type = null){
if (is_null($var_type)) {
switch (true) {
case is_bool($value):
$var_type = PDO::PARAM_BOOL;
break;
case is_int($value):
$var_type = PDO::PARAM_INT;
break;
case is_null($value):
$var_type = PDO::PARAM_NULL;
break;
default:
$var_type = PDO::PARAM_STR;
}
}
$this->stmt->bindValue($parameter, $value, $var_type);
}
up
2
heather dot begazo at gmail dot com
9 years ago
The documentation says this about the length parameter for bindParam:

"To indicate that a parameter is an OUT parameter from a stored procedure, you must explicitly set the length. "

For db2, I found that setting the length for the "INPUT_OUTPUT" parameters causes a problem for varchar parameters that are input parameters. The problem I found is that the stored procedure was called, but varchar input parameters were set to null inside my stored procedure and as a result, the stored procedure could not work properly.

Here is the signature for my stored procedure:

CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE MY_SCHEMA_NAME.MY_STORED_PROCEDURE_NAME ( IN RUN_ID INTEGER,IN V_SCHEMA_NAME VARCHAR(128),
OUT out_rc INTEGER,OUT out_err_message VARCHAR(100),OUT out_sqlstate CHAR(5) ,OUT out_sqlcode INT)

Here is the php code that works:

$command = "Call MY_SCHEMA_NAME.MY_STORED_PROCEDURE_NAME (?,?,?,?,?,?,?)";
$stmt = $this->GuestDb->prepare($command);
$stmt->bindParam(1, $RUN_ID, PDO::PARAM_INT);
$stmt->bindParam(2, $V_SCHEMA_NAME, PDO::PARAM_STR);
$stmt->bindParam(3, $V_TABNAME, PDO::PARAM_STR);
$stmt->bindParam(4, $out_rc, PDO::PARAM_INT|PDO::PARAM_INPUT_OUTPUT);
$stmt->bindParam(5, $out_err_message, PDO::PARAM_STR|PDO::PARAM_INPUT_OUTPUT);
$stmt->bindParam(6, $out_sqlstate, PDO::PARAM_STR|PDO::PARAM_INPUT_OUTPUT);
$stmt->bindParam(7, $out_sqlcode, PDO::PARAM_INT|PDO::PARAM_INPUT_OUTPUT);

Here is the php code that does not work:

$command = "Call MY_SCHEMA_NAME.MY_STORED_PROCEDURE_NAME (?,?,?,?,?,?,?)";
$stmt = $this->GuestDb->prepare($command);
$stmt->bindParam(1, $RUN_ID, PDO::PARAM_INT,12);
$stmt->bindParam(2, $V_SCHEMA_NAME, PDO::PARAM_STR,128);
$stmt->bindParam(3, $V_TABNAME, PDO::PARAM_STR,100);
$stmt->bindParam(4, $out_rc, PDO::PARAM_INT|PDO::PARAM_INPUT_OUTPUT,12);
$stmt->bindParam(5, $out_err_message, PDO::PARAM_STR|PDO::PARAM_INPUT_OUTPUT,100);
$stmt->bindParam(6, $out_sqlstate, PDO::PARAM_STR|PDO::PARAM_INPUT_OUTPUT,6);
$stmt->bindParam(7, $out_sqlcode, PDO::PARAM_INT|PDO::PARAM_INPUT_OUTPUT,12);
up
3
gilhildebrand at gmail dot com
9 years ago
MySQL will return an error if a named placeholder has a hyphen in it:
UPDATE wardrobe SET `T-Shirt`=:T-SHIRT WHERE id=:id

Will return the following error: PDOException' with message 'SQLSTATE[HY093]: Invalid parameter number: parameter was not defined'

To resolve, just remove hyphens from named placeholders:
UPDATE wardrobe SET `T-Shirt`=:TSHIRT WHERE id=:id
up
1
Vladimir Kovpak
9 years ago
<?php
/**
* Bind bit value:
*/

$sql = 'SELECT * FROM myTable WHERE level & ?';
$sth = \App::pdo()->prepare($sql);
$sth->bindValue(1, 0b0101, \PDO::PARAM_INT);
$sth->execute();
$result = $sth->fetchAll(\PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
up
2
flannell
12 years ago
Spent all day banging my head against a brick wall.

Tried to use INOUT or OUT and getting the return variable into PHP using Mysql v5.5.16 on XAMPP.

"MySQL doesn't supporting binding output parameters via its C API. You must use SQL level variables:"

<?php
$stm
= $db->prepare("CALL sp_mysp(:Name, :Email, @sp_result)");

$outputArray = $db->query("select @sp_result")->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
?>

So the 'workaround' for Mysql and PDO is to use two SQL calls.

Hope this helps someone.
up
1
Ejaz Ansari
8 years ago
For those who are confused on insert query using PDO-bindparam:

$sql = $db->prepare("INSERT INTO db_fruit (id, type, colour) VALUES (? ,? ,?)");

$sql->bindParam(1, $newId);
$sql->bindParam(2, $name);
$sql->bindParam(3, $colour);
$sql->execute();
up
0
marco dot marsala at live dot it
1 year ago
Examples doesn't highlight that this works as expected:

<?php
/* Execute a prepared statement by binding PHP variables */
$sth = $dbh->prepare('SELECT name, colour, calories
FROM fruit
WHERE calories < :calories AND colour = :colour'
);
$sth->bindParam('calories', $calories, PDO::PARAM_INT);
/* Names can be prefixed with colons ":" too (optional) */
$sth->bindParam(':colour', $colour, PDO::PARAM_STR);
$calories = 150;
$colour = 'red';
$sth->execute();
?>

calories get set to 150 in db, colour get set to red in db, because, as documentation points out: "the variable is bound as a reference and will only be evaluated at the time that PDOStatement::execute() is called."
up
0
weronika dot nowak dot code at gmail dot com
2 years ago
🧨🧨🧨
<?php
$q
= "SELECT id, name FROM test WHERE name like '%:foo%'";
$s = "carrot";
$sth = $dbh->prepare($q);
$sth->bindParam(':foo', $s);
$sth->execute();
?>

It's true, this ⬆ won't work but you can use concatenation ⬇:

<?php
$q
= "SELECT id, name FROM test WHERE name like '%' ||
:foo || '%' "
;
$s = "carrot";
$sth = $dbh->prepare($q);
$sth->bindParam(':foo', $s);
$sth->execute();
?>
up
0
willie at spenlen dot com
17 years ago
If you're using the MySQL driver and have a stored procedure with an OUT or INOUT parameter, you can't (currently) use bindValue(). See http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=35935 for a workaround.
up
-2
Tristen Edwin
6 years ago
Here's how to build a dynamic WHERE LIKE at run time when the user can submit n keywords

<?php

if (array_key_exists('storyPieces', $_POST)) {
$story_pieces = explode(',' $_POST['storyPieces']);
foreach(
$story_pieces as $piece) {
if (
$conditional_count == 0) {
$where_clause .= 'story LIKE ? ';
$conditional_count++;
} else {
$where_clause .= 'AND story LIKE ? ';
$conditional_count++;
}
}
}

// then after you've prepared

if (isset($story_pieces)) {
foreach(
$story_pieces as $key => &$piece) {
$piece = "%" . $piece . "%";
$sth->bindParam($key + 1, $piece, PDO::PARAM_STR);
}
}

?>
To Top