mysqli_prepare mysqli->prepare Prepare a SQL statement for execution Procedure style: mixedmysqli_prepare objectlink stringquery Object oriented style (method) stmt mixed prepare stringquery mysqli_prepare prepares the SQL query pointed to by the null-terminated string query, and returns a statement handle to be used for further operations on the statement. The query must consist of a single SQL statement. You should not add a terminating semicolon or \g to the statement. The parameter query can include one or more parameter markers in the SQL statement by embedding question mark (?) characters at the appropriate positions. The markers are legal only in certain places in SQL statements. For example, they are allowed in the VALUES() list of an INSERT statement (to specify column values for a row), or in a comparison with a column in a WHERE clause to specify a comparison value. However, they are not allowed for identifiers (such as table or column names), in the select list that names the columns to be returned by a SELECT statement), or to specify both operands of a binary operator such as the = equal sign. The latter restriction is necessary because it would be impossible to determine the parameter type. In general, parameters are legal only in Data Manipulation Languange (DML) statements, and not in Data Defination Language (DDL) statements. The parameter markers must be bound to application variables using mysqli_stmt_bind_param and/or mysqli_stmt_bind_result before executing the statement or fetching rows. &reftitle.returnvalues; mysqli_prepare returns a statement object or &false; if an error occured. &reftitle.seealso; mysqli_stmt_execute, mysqli_stmt_fetch, mysqli_stmt_bind_param, mysqli_stmt_bind_result, mysqli_stmt_close prepare("SELECT District FROM City WHERE Name=?")) { /* bind parameters for markers */ $stmt->bind_param("s", $city); /* execute query */ $stmt->execute(); /* bind result variables */ $stmt->bind_result($district); /* fetch value */ $stmt->fetch(); printf("%s is in district %s\n", $city, $district); /* close statement */ $stmt->close(); } /* close connection */ $mysqli->close(); ?> ]]> ]]> The above examples would produce the following output: