I've read the manual on PHP PDO and have seen this post: PDO PARAM_STR and length
After reading that post I understand that we do not need to specify the length when inserting into DB but specify for outputting.
My question is, can I use bindvalue() instead if I do not wish to specify any length for output? Maybe can someone give a good advice on when is best to user bindparam and bindvalue?
Thanks in advance guys.
You don't have to set the lenght for outputting, you can do this if your want.
This is what the manual says about the difference between bindValue() and bindParam()
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. 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.
I use always bindParam when I want to add a variable. But I guess you have to make your own decission for that.