Cannot use object of type PDOStatement as array

Question

I want to check if some column of specify user is holding a value higher than 0.

Problem

When doing the query, and then executing it , Im getting this error:

Fatal error: Cannot use object of type PDOStatement as array in C:\xampp\htdocs\recover\admin\create.php on line 40

My code (The query + execute):

if (isset($_SESSION['user'])) {
        $admin = $CONNECT_TO_DATABASE->prepare("SELECT * FROM admin WHERE username = :username");
        $admin->bindValue(':username', $_SESSION['user']);
        $admin->execute();

Line of error (40):

if ($settings['create_admins'] > 0 || $admin['super_admin'] > 0 ) {

Question:

Why am I getting this error? How do I fix it?

I tried doing this:

$admin = $CONNECT_TO_DATABASE->prepare("SELECT * FROM admin WHERE username = :username");
$admin = $admin->bindValue(':username', $_SESSION['user']);
$admin = $admin->execute();

and getting another error:

Fatal error: Call to a member function execute() on a non-object in C:\xampp\htdocs\recover\admin\create.php on line 38

Thanks!

EDIT: I need the ->fetch object, but I have just done this, and got rid of the errors.. But it doesn't affect? I mean I am echoing that row, and it gives me a null (nothing). Why?

$admin = $CONNECT_TO_DATABASE->prepare("SELECT * FROM admin WHERE username = ".$_SESSION['user']."");
$admin = $admin->fetch();

Answer 1

From:

$admin = $CONNECT_TO_DATABASE->prepare("SELECT * FROM admin WHERE username = :username");
[...]
if ($settings['create_admins'] > 0 || $admin['super_admin'] > 0 ) {

$admin is of type PDOStatament which is a class and not an array. Therefore you can't call the [] operator on it.

Also you should really not alway assign $admin to the return result of every method because most of the PDOStatament 's methods return boolean values:

$admin = $CONNECT_TO_DATABASE->prepare("SELECT * FROM admin WHERE username = :username");
$admin->bindValue(':username', $_SESSION['user']);
$admin->execute();

To retrieve the super_admin column from the admin table you should add (after the execute() statement):

$result = $admin->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);

which will populate (hopefully, it depends on what's the table schema) $result['super_admin'] .

Answer 2

try this:

$sql = "SELECT * FROM admin WHERE username = ?";
$stmt = $CONNECT_TO_DATABASE->prepare($sql);
$stmt->execute(array($_SESSION['user']));
$admin = $stmt->fetch();
if($admin) {
   //do something if query returns row(s)
}