How to Ensure MySQL Numeric Columns Return as PHP Integers and Numerics?

Returning Integer and Numeric Columns from MySQL as PHP Integers and Numerics

Issue:
Query results are returning all columns as string types, despite having integer and numeric columns defined in the database.

Intricacy:
The challenge arises from driver implementation limitations. Some drivers do not support returning numeric types as PHP integers or numerics, leading to the mismatch between the database's data type and the PHP representation.

Solution:
The key to resolving this issue lies in ensuring that the mysqlnd driver is used for PHP. mysqlnd is a MySQL native driver that provides the necessary support for returning numeric types correctly.

How to Install mysqlnd:
For Ubuntu systems:

1. Remove the current native driver: apt-get remove php5-mysql
2. Install mysqlnd: apt-get install php5-mysqlnd
3. Restart Apache: service apache2 restart

Checking if mysqlnd is Used:
After installation, run php -i to verify that mysqlnd is being used. Look for the following line in the output:

PDO Driver for MySQL => enabled
Client API version => mysqlnd 5.0.10 - 20111026 -

Essential PDO Settings:
To ensure proper handling of numeric values, two PDO settings are crucial:

1. PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES: Set this to false to improve performance and avoid potential issues.
2. PDO::ATTR_STRINGIFY_FETCHES: Disable this to prevent the driver from casting numeric values to strings.

After setting these flags, your query results will now return integer and numeric columns as expected. Here's an example of the returned values:

object(stdClass)[915]
  public 'integer_col' => int 1
  public 'double_col' => float 1.55
  public 'float_col' => float 1.5
  public 'decimal_col' => string '1.20' (length=4)
  public 'bigint_col' => string '18446744073709551615' (length=20)

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