====== PDO - Insert Statements ====== prepare("INSERT INTO table(field1,field2,field3,field4,field5) VALUES(:field1,:field2,:field3,:field4,:field5)"); $stmt->execute(array(':field1' => $field1, ':field2' => $field2, ':field3' => $field3, ':field4' => $field4, ':field5' => $field5)); $affected_rows = $stmt->rowCount(); ===== Preparing Statements using SQL functions ===== prepare("INSERT INTO table(`time`, `name`) VALUES(?, ?)"); $stmt->execute(array($time, $name)); This does not work, you need to put the function in the query as normal: prepare("INSERT INTO table(`time`, `name`) VALUES(NOW(), ?)"); $stmt->execute(array($name)); You can bind arguments into SQL functions however: prepare("INSERT INTO table(`hexvalue`, `password`) VALUES(HEX(?), PASSWORD(?))"); $stmt->execute(array($name, $password)); Also note that this does NOT work for LIKE statements: prepare("SELECT field FROM table WHERE field LIKE %?%"); $stmt->bindParam(1, $search, PDO::PARAM_STR); $stmt->execute(); So do this instead: prepare("SELECT field FROM table WHERE field LIKE ?"); $stmt->bindValue(1, "%$search%", PDO::PARAM_STR); $stmt->execute(); Note we used **bindValue** and not **bindParam**. Trying to bind a parameter by reference will generate a Fatal Error and this cannot be caught by PDOException either. ===== Executing prepared statements in a loop ===== Prepared statements excel in being called multiple times in a row with different values. Because the sql statement gets compiled first, it can be called multiple times in a row with different arguments, and you'll get a big speed increase vs calling mysql_query over and over again! Typically this is done by binding parameters with **bindParam**. bindParam is much like bindValue except instead of binding the value of a variable, it binds the variable itself, so that if the variable changes, it will be read at the time of execute. prepare("INSERT INTO table(`name`) VALUES(:name)"); $stmt->bindParam(':name', $name, PDO::PARAM_STR); foreach($values as $name) { $stmt->execute(); }