WARNING:
fetch() does NOT adhere to SQL-92 SQLSTATE standard when dealing with empty datasets.

Instead of setting the errorcode class to 20 to indicate "no data found", it returns a class of 00 indicating success, and returns NULL to the caller.

This also prevents the exception mechainsm from firing.

Programmers will need to explicitly code tests for empty resultsets after any fetch*() instead of relying on the default behavior of the RDBMS.

I tried logging this as a bug, but it was dismissed as "working as intended". Just a head's up.

If no record, this function will also return false.
I think that is not very good...

Someone's already pointed out that PDO::CURSOR_SCROLL isn't supported by the SQLite driver. It's also worth noting that it's not supported by the MySQL driver either.

In fact, if you try to use scrollable cursors with a MySQL statement, the PDO::FETCH_ORI_ABS parameter and the offset given to fetch() will be silently ignored. fetch() will behave as normal, returning rows in the order in which they came out of the database.

It's actually pretty confusing behaviour at first. Definitely worth documenting even if only as a user-added note on this page.

When using PDO::FETCH_COLUMN in a while loop, it's not enough to just use the value in the while statement as many examples show:

<?php
while ($row = $stmt->fetch(PDO::FETCH_COLUMN)) {
    print $row;
}
?>

If there are 5 rows with values 1 2 0 4 5, then the while loop above will stop at the third row printing only 1 2. The solution is to either explicitly test for false:

<?php
while (($row = $stmt->fetch(PDO::FETCH_COLUMN)) !== false) {
    print $row;
}
?>

Or use foreach with fetchAll():

<?php
foreach ($stmt->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_COLUMN) as $row) {
    print $row;
}
?>

Both will correctly print 1 2 0 4 5.

A quick one liner to get the first entry returned.  This is nice for very basic queries.

<?php
$count = current($db->query("select count(*) from table")->fetch());
?>php

When fetching an object, the constructor of the class is called after the fields are populated by default.

PDO::FETCH_PROPS_LATE is used to change the behaviour and make it work as expected - constructor be called _before_ the object fields will be populated with the data.

sample:

<?php
$a = $PDO->query('select id from table');
$a->setFetchMode(PDO::FETCH_CLASS|PDO::FETCH_PROPS_LATE, 'ClassName');
$obj = $a->fetch();
?>

http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=53394

Here is quick note for developers that use the PDO SQLite Driver:

The PDO SQLite driver does not support cursors, so using the PDO::CURSOR_SCROLL Attribute, will not work when using the PDO SQLite driver. For example:

<?php

// Assuming $Handle Is a PDO Handle.
$Statement = $Handle->query( $sqlStatement , array( PDO::ATTR_CURSOR => PDO::CURSOR_SCROLL ) );

?>

What is even worse is that PDO::prepare will NOT throw an Exception when it fails to prepare the query, even when the error mode is set to throw Exceptions, and will instead return a Boolean False!

Not only do I consider this a poor design choice, but also its a real shame that this is not documented anywhere in the manual -- in fact the manual is not clear on what Attributes are supported by which drivers and which are not so developers are left to play a classic game of guess.

I hope this saves some developers some headaches.

Good Luck,

A prior poster indicated that this function returns a NULL when there are no results. This is not true. This function returns an empty array. fetchAll() returns the same.

Also, the documentation specifies what happens on "failure", but doesn't indicate what constitutes a "failure". A "failure" could be where the function returns no results; that is, the query "failed". However, a "failure" is apparently a situation where the PDO error functions would reveal a "failure", as in illegal SQL syntax, or a query on a table which doesn't exist, etc. An empty result is not a "failure". Maybe that's obvious to everyone else, but it wasn't to me.

If you to use a new instance of a class for a record you can use:

<?php
include_once("user.class");
$sth = $db->prepare("SELECT * FROM user WHERE id = 1");

/* create instance automatically */
$sth->setFetchMode( PDO::FETCH_CLASS, 'user');
$sth->execute();
$user = $sth->fetch( PDO::FETCH_CLASS );
$sth->closeCursor();
print ($user->id);

/* or create an instance yourself and use it */
$user= new user();
$sth->setFetchMode( PDO::FETCH_INTO, $user);
$sth->execute();
$user= $sth->fetch( PDO::FETCH_INTO );
$sth->closeCursor();
print ($user->id);
?>

Because MySQL does not currently support the use of cursors, the $cursor_offset feature cannot work when using PDO to access a MySQL database.

If you are tring to arbitrarily access a specific record or group of records in a MySQL database recordset, you might want to consider using the LIMIT clause of the SELECT statement to achieve this e.g. LIMIT 5,3 to return just the 6th,7th & 8th records - 3 records starting at index 5 (which is the 6th record).

If you want to use PDO::FETCH_CLASS you need to set it up with setFetchMode first like so:
        $stmt->setFetchMode( PDO::FETCH_CLASS, 'classType', array( 'parameters to constructor' );
        $object = $stmt->fetch( PDO::FETCH_CLASS );
If you ommit this PHP will segfault.

I can also add that the constructor is run _after_ the data is set on the object if yo use PDO::FETCH_CLASS.

this is just On reminder note about Second parameter -cursor_oriantation-

PDO::FETCH_ORI_NEXT :-
Fetch the next row in the result set. Valid only for scrollable cursors.

PDO::FETCH_ORI_PRIOR :-
Fetch the previous row in the result set. Valid only for scrollable cursors.

PDO::FETCH_ORI_FIRST :-
Fetch the first row in the result set. Valid only for scrollable cursors.

PDO::FETCH_ORI_LAST :-
Fetch the last row in the result set. Valid only for scrollable cursors.

PDO::FETCH_ORI_ABS :-
Fetch the requested row by row number from the result set. Valid only for scrollable cursors.

PDO::FETCH_ORI_REL :- 
Fetch the requested row by relative position from the current position of the cursor in the result set. Valid only for scrollable cursors.

Be careful with fetch() when you use prepared statements and MySQL (I don`t know how it is with other databases). Fetch won`t close cursor and won`t let you send any other query, even if your result set has only one row, . 
If you use $statement->fetch(), you will also have to use $statement->closeCursor() afterwards, to be albe to execute another query.
Alternatively you can use $statement->fetchAll() without $statement->closeCursor().

When using a PDOStatement with the fetch mode set to FETCH_CLASS, fetch will return false if no rows were found.

It seems that if you do a $statement->query() with an INSERT statement and after that a $statement->fetch() you will get an exception saying: SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error.

I spent some hours trying to find out how to manipulate with BLOB fields using PDO.

Remember that you can't retreive BLOB data using something like this :

<?php
$sql = 'SELECT * FROM sometable LIMIT 1';
$stmt = $dbh->prepare($sql);
$stmt->execute();
$stmt->setAttribute(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
$row = $stmt->fetch();

$myFile = $row['file'];
?>

Instead of this you should try following approach:

<?php
$sql = "SELECT mime, file FROM sometable LIMIT 1"; 
$stmt = $dbh->prepare($sql); 
$stmt->execute(); 

$stmt->bindColumn(1, $mime,); 
$stmt->bindColumn(2, $file, PDO::PARAM_LOB); 

$stmt->fetch(); 

header('Content-type: '.$mime);
print $file; 

?>

I could use PDO::FETCH_COLUMN to retrieve the first column from result.
$ps->fetch( PDO::FETCH_COLUMN );
Worked on Postgresql with PHP 5.3.10.

note that fetch constants are not included in the PDO class for PHP versions prior to 5.1

Note that PDO::ATTR_STRINGIFY_FETCHES will NOT work for the MySQL driver. MySQL will always return strings because that is the behaviour of the core mysql PHP extension. See http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=44341

Note that this way, the "fetch mode" will get "overwritten", and PDO::FETCH_PROPS_LATE won't be applied:

<?php
$sth = $db->prepare("SELECT * FROM user WHERE id = 1");
$sth->setFetchMode( PDO::FETCH_CLASS|PDO::FETCH_PROPS_LATE, 'user');
$sth->execute();
$user = $sth->fetch( PDO::FETCH_CLASS );
$sth->closeCursor();
?>

Instead, you should leave the parameter area for the fetch() method empty, like this (if you want to set the fetch mode with the setFetchMode() method):

<?php
$sth = $db->prepare("SELECT * FROM user WHERE id = 1");
$sth->setFetchMode( PDO::FETCH_CLASS|PDO::FETCH_PROPS_LATE, 'user');
$sth->execute();
$user = $sth->fetch();
$sth->closeCursor();
?>

Be careful when using PDO::FETCH_LAZY.  It adds an additional field called queryString.  I'm not sure if this a bug or not. I'm using version 5.6.17 in Debian Jessie.

Query:  'select 1,2,3'

$row=$smt->fetch(PDO::FETCH_OBJ);
var_dump($row);

object(stdClass)#6 (3) {
  ["1"]=>
  string(1) "1"
  ["2"]=>
  string(1) "2"
  ["3"]=>
  string(1) "3"
}

$row=$smt->fetch(PDO::FETCH_LAZY);
var_dump($row);

object(PDORow)#3 (4) {
  ["queryString"]=>
  string(12) "select 1,2,3"
  ["1"]=>
  string(1) "1"
  ["2"]=>
  string(1) "2"
  ["3"]=>
  string(1) "3"
}