Prepared Statements and Bound
Parameters
A prepared statement is a feature used to execute the same (or similar) SQL
statements repeatedly with high efficiency.
Prepared statements basically work like this:
1. Prepare: An SQL statement template is created and sent to the
database. Certain values are left unspecified, called parameters
(labeled "?"). Example: INSERT INTO MyGuests VALUES(?, ?, ?)
2. The database parses, compiles, and performs query optimization on
the SQL statement template, and stores the result without executing it
3. Execute: At a later time, the application binds the values to the
parameters, and the database executes the statement. The application
may execute the statement as many times as it wants with different
values
Compared to executing SQL statements directly, prepared statements have
three main advantages:
Prepared statements reduce parsing time as the preparation on the
query is done only once (although the statement is executed multiple
times)
Bound parameters minimize bandwidth to the server as you need send
only the parameters each time, and not the whole query
Prepared statements are very useful against SQL injections, because
parameter values, which are transmitted later using a different
protocol, need not be correctly escaped. If the original statement
template is not derived from external input, SQL injection cannot
occur.
Prepared Statements in MySQLi
The following example uses prepared statements and bound parameters in
MySQLi:
Example (MySQLi with Prepared Statements)
<?php
$servername = "localhost";
$username = "username";
$password = "password";
$dbname = "myDB";
// Create connection
$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $dbname);
// Check connection
if ($conn->connect_error) {
die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error);
}
// prepare and bind
$stmt = $conn->prepare("INSERT INTO MyGuests (firstname, lastname,
email) VALUES (?, ?, ?)");
$stmt->bind_param("sss", $firstname, $lastname, $email);
// set parameters and execute
$firstname = "John";
$lastname = "Doe";
$email = "
[email protected]";
$stmt->execute();
$firstname = "Mary";
$lastname = "Moe";
$email = "[email protected]";
$stmt->execute();
$firstname = "Julie";
$lastname = "Dooley";
$email = "[email protected]";
$stmt->execute();
echo "New records created successfully";
$stmt->close();
$conn->close();
?>
Code lines to explain from the example above:
"INSERT INTO MyGuests (firstname, lastname, email) VALUES (?, ?, ?)"
In our SQL, we insert a question mark (?) where we want to substitute in an
integer, string, double or blob value.
Then, have a look at the bind_param() function:
$stmt->bind_param("sss", $firstname, $lastname, $email);
This function binds the parameters to the SQL query and tells the database
what the parameters are. The "sss" argument lists the types of data that the
parameters are. The s character tells mysql that the parameter is a string.
The argument may be one of four types:
i - integer
d - double
s - string
b - BLOB
We must have one of these for each parameter.
By telling mysql what type of data to expect, we minimize the risk of SQL
injections.
Note: If we want to insert any data from external sources (like user input), it
is very important that the data is sanitized and validated.
