How define the variable type in PDOStatement::bindValue()?

Question

The PDOStatement::bindValue() method offers a way to specify the type of the variable bound:

PDOStatement::bindValue ( $parameter , $value [, $da

Answer 1

The data type parameter to PDOStatement::bindValue() isn't terribly useful. Essentially:

• If you tell it PDO::PARAM_STR, it converts your value into a string.
• If you tell it PDO::PARAM_INT and you pass a boolean, it converts it into a long.
• If you tell it PDO::PARAM_BOOL and you pass it a long, it converts it into a boolean.

Nothing else seems to be converted. See here for a quick look at the source code and a little better explanation. Perhaps most importantly, PDO will not throw an exception or produce an error if you pass data with a type that doesn't match the data type you passed.