PHP bindParam not working - blindValue is not the solution - php

Question

I can't figure this out. I've googled it and a lot of answers refer to blindValue as the solution but I've also tried that with no luck.
The problem is that the SELECT statement is returning zero records but it should return one record. If I hard code the values into the SQL statement it works but passing them in as parameters isn't. Can some one please help me out with this? Thanks.
<?php
function checklogin($email, $password){
try
{
// Connection
$conn;
include_once('connect.php');
// Build Query
$sql = 'SELECT pkUserID, Email, Password, fkUserGroupID FROM tbluser WHERE Email = :email AND Password = :password';
// $sql = 'SELECT pkUserID, Email, Password, fkUserGroupID FROM tbluser WHERE Email = "a" AND Password = "a"';
// Prepare the SQL statement.
$stmt = $conn->prepare($sql);
// Add the value to the SQL statement
$stmt->bindParam(':email', $email, PDO::PARAM_STR);
$stmt->bindParam(':password', $password, PDO::PARAM_STR);
// Execute SQL
$stmt->execute();
// Get the data in the result object
$result = $stmt->fetchAll(); // $result is NULL always...
// echo $stmt->rowCount(); // rowCount is always ZERO....
// Check that we have some data
if ($result != null)
{
// Start session
if (session_status() == PHP_SESSION_NONE) {
session_start();
}
// Search the results
foreach($result as $row){
// Set global environment variables with the key fields required
$_SESSION['UserID'] = $row['pkUserID'];
$_SESSION['Email'] = $row['Email'];
}
echo 'yippee';
// Return empty string
return '';
}
else {
// Failed login
return 'Login unsuccessful!';
}
$conn = null;
}
catch (PDOexception $e)
{
return 'Login failed: ' . $e->getMessage();
}
}
?>
the connect code is;
<?php
$servername = 'localhost';
$username = 'admin';
$password = 'password';
try {
// Change this line to connect to different database
// Also enable the extension in the php.ini for new database engine.
$conn = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=database', $username, $password);
// set the PDO error mode to exception
$conn->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
// echo 'Connected successfully';
}
catch(PDOException $e)
{
echo 'Connection failed: ' . $e->getMessage();
}
?>
I'm connecting to mySQL. Thanks for the help,
Jim

Answer 1

It was a simple but stupid error.
I had a variable called $password also in the connect.php file which was overwriting the $password that I was passing to the checklogin.
Jim