pdosetAttributePDOATTREMULATEPREPARES

PDO::setAttribute is a method of the PHP Data Objects (PDO) extension used to configure the behavior of a PDO instance at runtime. It accepts two parameters: an attribute identifier and the value to assign. The method returns a boolean indicating whether the attribute was accepted by the driver.

Attributes relate to error handling, fetch behavior, and internal processing. Common attributes include PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ATTR_DEFAULT_FETCH_MODE, PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES, PDO::ATTR_CASE, and PDO::ATTR_ORACLE_NULLS. Each attribute has a set of valid values defined by the PDO specification and the driver.

Error mode values include PDO::ERRMODE_SILENT, PDO::ERRMODE_WARNING, and PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION. Setting ATTR_ERRMODE to ERRMODE_EXCEPTION makes PDO throw exceptions on errors, which simplifies error handling. ATTR_DEFAULT_FETCH_MODE defines how rows are returned by default, such as PDO::FETCH_ASSOC or PDO::FETCH_OBJ. Other frequently used attributes control case transformation of column names (ATTR_CASE) and how NULL values are treated (ATTR_ORACLE_NULLS).

Common practice is to disable native prepared statement emulation for databases that support native prepared statements by setting ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES to false. This can improve performance and security by using the database’s prepared statements.

The availability of certain attributes varies by driver. When a driver does not support a requested value, setAttribute may fail or be ignored. It is common to check the return value or enable ERRMODE_EXCEPTION to surface issues.