What is the PDO equivalent of function mysql_real_escape_string?

Question

I am modifying my code from using mysql_* to PDO. In my code I had mysql_real_escape_string(). What is the equivalent of this in PDO?

Answer 1

Well No, there is none!

Technically there is PDO::quote() but it is rarely ever used and is not the equivalent of mysql_real_escape_string()

That's right! If you are already using PDO the proper way as documented using prepared statements, then it will protect you from MySQL injection.

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# Example:

Below is an example of a safe database query using prepared statements (pdo)

  try {
     // first connect to database with the PDO object. 
     $db = new \PDO("mysql:host=localhost;dbname=xxx;charset=utf8", "xxx", "xxx", [
       PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES => false, 
       PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE => PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION
     ]); 
 } catch(\PDOException $e){
     // if connection fails, show PDO error. 
   echo "Error connecting to mysql: " . $e->getMessage();
 }

And, now assuming the connection is established, you can execute your query like this.

if($_POST && isset($_POST['color'])){ 

    // preparing a statement
    $stmt = $db->prepare("SELECT id, name, color FROM Cars WHERE color = ?");

    // execute/run the statement. 
    $stmt->execute(array($_POST['color']));

    // fetch the result. 
    $cars = $stmt->fetchAll(\PDO::FETCH_ASSOC); 
    var_dump($cars); 
 }

Now, as you can probably tell, I haven't used anything to escape/sanitize the value of $_POST["color"]. And this code is secure from myql-injection thanks to PDO and the power of prepared statements.

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It is worth noting that you should pass a charset=utf8 as attribute, in your DSN as seen above, for security reasons, and always enable PDO to show errors in the form of exceptions.

PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE => PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION

so errors from you database queries won't reveal sensitive data like your directory structure, database username etc.

Last but not least, there are moments when you should not trust PDO 100%, and will be bound to take some extra measures to prevent sql injection, one of those cases is, if you are using an outdated versions of mysql [ mysql =< 5.3.6 ] as described in this answer

But, using prepared statements as shown above will always be safer, than using any of the functions that start with mysql_

Good reads

PDO Tutorial for MySQL Developers