Zend_Db_Adapter fetchOne returns OCI-Lob object instead of string

Question

I am using Zend Framework and Oracle and I am trying to receive single value from database like this:

$userId = (int) $this->_getParam('userId');

// CREATE TABLE MEMBERS (
//    "MEMEBER_ID" NUMBER,
//    "FIRSTNAME" VARCHAR2(20 CHAR),
//    "LASTNAME" VARCHAR2(20 CHAR),
//    "EMAIL" VARCHAR2(40 CHAR),
//    "ABOUT" CLOB
// )

$sql = 'SELECT about FROM members WHERE id = :userId';

$binds = array (
   'userId' => $userId
);

$about = Zend_Registry::get('db')->fetchOne($sql, $binds);

According to manual, fetchOne() should return string, but when I dump returned value, it looks like this:

object(OCI-Lob)#1161 (1) {
  ["descriptor"] => resource(209) of type (oci8 descriptor)
}

As you can see, object is returned, which is against the manual - "it returns only a single scalar value, not an array or an object."

How can I convert this to string?

Answer 1

Problem is in CLOB data type used in column about. Answer fot this is given in notes for Oracle adapter, especially:

By default, LOB fields are returned as OCI-Lob objects. You could retrieve them as string for all requests by using driver options 'lob_as_string' or for particular request by using setLobAsString(boolean) on adapter or on statement.

So the solution is really simple, just call setLobAsString(true) before fetchOne() like this:

$about = Zend_Registry::get('db')->setLobAsString(true)->fetchOne($sql, $binds);

echo $about; // string