PDO MySQL: Use PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES or not?

Question

This is what I\'ve read so far about PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES:

1. PDO\'s prepare emulation is better for performance since MySQL\'s native prepare bypasses the

Answer 1

I'd recommend enabling real database PREPARE calls as the emulation doesn't catch everything.., for example, it will prepare INSERT;!

var_dump($dbh->prepare('INSERT;'));
$dbh->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_EMULATE_PREPARES, false);
var_dump($dbh->prepare('INSERT;'));

The output

object(PDOStatement)#2 (1) {
  ["queryString"]=>
  string(7) "INSERT;"
}
bool(false)

I'll gladly take a performance hit for code that actually works.

FWIW

PHP Version: PHP 5.4.9-4ubuntu2.4 (cli)

MySQL Version: 5.5.34-0ubuntu0