Is there a PDO equivalent to the mysqli syntax $stmt->bind_param()? - php

Question

EDITED CODEI have a mysqli line of code: $stmt->bind_param("ss", $_POST['skills'], $_POST['city']); in a working query.
I've found the need to change to PDO and have used:$stmt->bindValue(':skill', $skills, PDO::PARAM_STR);
$stmt->bindValue(':city', $city, PDO::PARAM_STR);
I get no results except the echoed "No result found. Did you enter a city?" nor error messages although there is a connection to the db as evidenced in the search form in which the select list of 'city' is loaded. The full query:
try {
global $pdo;
if(isset($_POST['search'])) {
$skills = htmlspecialchars($_POST['skills']);
$city = htmlspecialchars($_POST['city']);
$stmt = $pdo->prepare('SELECT skill.skill_name, team.city FROM skill JOIN team ON skill.skill_id=team.skill WHERE skill.skill_name LIKE :skills AND team.city LIKE :city');
$skills = "%".$skills."%";
$city = "%".$city."%";
$stmt->bindParam(':skills', $skills, PDO::PARAM_STR);
$stmt->bindParam(':city', $city, PDO::PARAM_STR);
$stmt->execute();
if ($stmt->rowCount() > 0){
$rows = $stmt->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
foreach ($rows as $row) {
echo $row['skill'] . " is available in " . $row['city'];
}
}
else {
echo "No result found. Did you enter a city?";
}
}
}//try
catch(PDOException $e) {
echo "Error: " . $e->getMessage();
}
Thanks.

Answer 1

If you really need to use LIKE then you need a wildcard somewhere in the string. As a placeholder has to represent a complete data literal, and if you want to use LIKE you have to create the parameter with the wildcards included like this.
try {
global $pdo;
if(isset($_POST['search'])) {
$skills = '%' . htmlspecialchars($_POST['skills']) . '%';
$city = '%' . htmlspecialchars($_POST['city']) . '%';
$stmt = $pdo->prepare('SELECT skill.skill_name, team.city
FROM skill
JOIN team ON skill.skill_id=team.skill
WHERE skill.skill_name LIKE :skill
AND team.city LIKE :city');
$stmt->bindValue(':skill', $skills, PDO::PARAM_STR);
$stmt->bindValue(':city', $city, PDO::PARAM_STR);
$stmt->execute();
if ($stmt->rowCount() > 0){
$rows = $stmt->fetchAll();
foreach ($rows as $row) {
echo $row['skill_name'] . " is available in " . $row['city'];
}
}else{
echo "No result found. Did you enter a city?";
}
}
}
catch(PDOException $e) {
echo "Error: " . $e->getMessage();
}
A minor edit by ML: Corrected $row['skill'] to $row['skill_name']