PDO and query troubleshoot - basic - php

Question

I am converting an old php 5.6 code to 7.2 and learning how to use PDO.
I have reached a point where I got stuck and would like to learn from the community.
I created a test file structure:
db.php:
<?php
try {
$conn = new PDO($initlocation, $username, $pwdata);
$conn->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
echo "worked"; // THIS WORKS ON THE SCREEN
}
catch(PDOException $e){
echo "Connection failed: " . $e->getMessage();
}
?>
test.php:
<?php
include("db.php");
$user_query='SELECT * FROM `users` WHERE `email`="user1.a#gmail.com"';
echo $user_query; // I GET THE QUERY PRINTED ON THE SCREEN
echo is_object($conn); // THIS IS 1 WHICH IS GOD
echo "<br>";
echo is_object($res); // THIS IS 1 WHICH IS ODD
try{
$res = $conn->query($user_query);
}
catch (Exception $e){
echo "Query failed: " . $e->getMessage(); // NOTHING
}
echo "<br>";
echo is_object($res); // NOTHING
$data_exists = $res->fetch();
if ($data_exists==1) echo "yes"; // NOTHING
?>
I have left the testing method in the code as well and I am keen to find a better solution to find out why the query does not show anything.
The aim would be to find the email address in the DB and give me some feedback about it. Thank you in advance all the comments I will only learn form them.
Additional info:
When I run the SQL query in the DB directly it does give me the record that has the same email.

Answer 1

Try the following and use prepared statements like protection from SQL injections.
$stmt = $pdo->prepare('SELECT * FROM users WHERE email = ?');
$stmt->execute([$email]);
$user = $stmt->fetch();