mysqli bind_param for array of strings

Question

I can not get this to work. I've spent way to many hours on it now.

This works:

$mysqli = new mysqli("localhost", "root", "root", "db");
if(!$mysqli || $mysqli->connect_errno)
{
    return;
}
$query_str= "SELECT name FROM table WHERE city IN ('Nashville','Knoxville')";
$query_prepared = $mysqli->stmt_init();
if($query_prepared && $query_prepared->prepare($query_str))
{       
    $query_prepared->execute();

But this I can NOT get it to work with a bind_param like this:

$query_str= "SELECT name FROM table WHERE city IN (?)";
$query_prepared = $mysqli->stmt_init();
if($query_prepared && $query_prepared->prepare($query_str))
{       
    $cities= explode(",", $_GET['cities']);
    $str_get_cities=  "'".implode("','", $get_cities)."'"; // This equals 'Nashville','Knoxville'

    $query_prepared->bind_param("s", $cities);
    $query_prepared->execute();

What am I doing wrong?

I've also tried call_user_func_array, but can't seem to get the syntax correct.

EDIT:
I've rigorously tried moskito-x's suggestions and tons of examples listed here and else where on SO and random websites, and nothing works. I think the issue might be PHP 5.4, which is what my MAMP is set to right now.

Answer 1

The task is a bit elaborate but doable. I'll take the explanation from my article Mysqli prepared statement with multiple values for IN clause:

• First of all we will need to create a string with as many ? marks as many elements are in your array. For this we would use str_repeat() function which comes very handy for the purpose.
• Then this string with comma separated question marks have to be added to the query. Although it's a variable, in this case it is safe as it contains only constant values
• then this query must be prepared just like any other query
• then we will need to create a string with types to be used with bind_param(). Note that there is usually no reason to use different types for the bound variables - mysql will happily accept them all as strings. There are edge cases, but extremely rare. For the everyday use you can always keep it simple and use "s" for the everything. str_repeat() is again to the rescue.
• then we need to bind our array values to the statement. Unfortunately, you cannot just write it as a single variable, like this $stmt->bind_param("s", $array), only scalar variables are allowed in bind_param(). Luckily, there is an argument unpacking operator that does exactly what we need - sends an array of values into a function as though it's a set of distinct variables!
• the rest is as usual - execute the query, get the result and fetch your data!

So the correct example code would be

$array = ['Nashville','Knoxville']; // our array
$in    = str_repeat('?,', count($array) - 1) . '?'; // placeholders
$sql   = "SELECT name FROM table WHERE city IN ($in)"; // sql
$stmt  = $mysqli->prepare($sql); // prepare
$types = str_repeat('s', count($array)); //types
$stmt->bind_param($types, ...$array); // bind array at once
$stmt->execute();
$result = $stmt->get_result(); // get the mysqli result
$data = $result->fetch_all(MYSQLI_ASSOC); // fetch the data   

Although this code is rather big, it is incomparably smaller than any other plausible solution offered in this topic so far.