Very Confusing PDO php exec() connection issue - php

Question

I have run into a very confusing issue with connecting to a database via PHP PDO using exec().
I have thrown together the following snippet to illustrate my point.
$host = "localhost";
$db_name = "some_db";
$user_name = "some_user";
$pass_word = "some_password";
try {
// assign PDO object to db variable
$dbh = new PDO("mysql:host=$host;dbname=$db_name;charset=utf8", $user_name, $pass_word, array(PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_INIT_COMMAND => "SET NAMES 'utf8'"));
$dbh->setAttribute( PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION );
echo "yahoo connected";
}
catch (PDOException $e) {
//Output error - would normally log this to error file rather than output to user.
echo "Connection Error: " . $e->getMessage();
}
When I run this code via the browser it connects fine but when I run it at the command line it gives the following error:
Connection Error: SQLSTATE[28000] [1045] Access denied for user 'some_user'#'localhost' (using password: NO)
Needless to say that this is confusing as the password is indeed set as you can see in the code above and the connection works and prints yahoo to the screen in the browser. Any ideas are appreciated.

Answer 1

Your snippet is wrong. It ought to be without useless try-catch block:
$host = "localhost";
$db_name = "some_db";
$user_name = "some_user";
$pass_word = "some_password";
$dsn = "mysql:host=$host;dbname=$db_name;charset=utf8"
$opt = array(
PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE => PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION,
PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_INIT_COMMAND => "SET NAMES utf8",
// other options
);
$dbh = new PDO($dsn, $user_name, $pass_word, $opt);
echo "yahoo connected";
this way you will get a complete error message,including stack trace which will show you the actual file you runs - in which there is empty password used.
it is also important to have error_reporting(E_ALL); to tell you possible issues with variables scope