Re: PDO returns all data as strings?!

Hello, I think your're referring to this (which I've now read for the first time and basically contains what I'd have expected there): https://sqlite.org/c3ref/column_blob.html You fetch the type and then call the appropriate read function. When calling an "inappropriate" function, the value will be converted accordingly. PDO seems to not care about the type check and fetch everything as string for simplicity.

However, I never found this to be an issue, particularly if you're echoing values back to the web page.

If you don't care about localisation, then yes, go ahead. Not everywhere is a point a recognised decimal separator. For example where I live.

And yes, PDO is absolutely the best way to address a SQLite database (or any other for that matter).

I'd rather rate it as "PDO is the only abstraction layer we have, so it must be the 'best' way". But it's certainly not "good" like this. Or sometimes even unusable. I fetch the values I've written and compare them with new values. A different type will ask for trouble here. Meanwhile I found out that the SQLite3 classes are very similar, conversion of my code went very quickly. And they work correctly. So I'll keep those. -Yves -------- Ursprüngliche Nachricht -------- Von: <paulf@quillandmouse.com> Gesendet: Montag, 3. April 2023, 22:17 MESZ Betreff: PDO returns all data as strings?! On Mon, 3 Apr 2023 21:31:29 +0200 "Yves Goergen via php-general" <php-general@lists.php.net> wrote: Hello, I just noticed a weird behaviour of PDO for my SQLite database and found a hint online. Just wanted to check here. Is it correct that PDO will return all queried values from the fetch method as string, no matter the actual data type? I couldn't find that notice by glancing over the documentation. (Such an unexpected note should be very well visible.) If that's the case, can it be fixed immediately (for PHP 7.4 and later)? Or what alternatives to PDO could I use for SQLite only? I need prepared statements and parameter binding. I know how SQLite handles data types, and it includes remembering the type that was given to it. If PHP/PDO then destroys it, it's of very limited use. My code looks like this:

      $ps = $this->connection->prepare('select * from table');
      $ps->execute();
      $record = $ps->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);

-Yves I can't speak to how PDO can be made to return certain types of data. However, I can say that for the C API of SQLite (which I'm sure PHP relies upon), the default return type for results is strings. In C, you must add an additional set of calls to get SQLite data into integers, floats, etc. That said, with PHP's fluid typing, and its ability to cast to different types, you can achieve the result you want, albeit with more tedium. It's been my experience that PHP/PDO does in fact return strings by default. However, I never found this to be an issue, particularly if you're echoing values back to the web page. And yes, PDO is absolutely the best way to address a SQLite database (or any other for that matter). Paul