Registration form: problems with email check

Question

i have a problem with the realization of a registration form. My php script should check if the user email is already in use. if the email is in use the php script should show an error message, if it is not the registration is successfully completed.

$email = $_POST['email'];       
  try{            
        $sql = "SELECT count(mail) FROM user WHERE mail = '$email'";            
        $result = $pdo->exec($sql);        
  }catch(PDOException $e){            
      echo $e;            
      exit();        }
  if($result == 0){            
     //registration complete        }
  else{            
      //email already in use        } 

my problem is that i obtain always 0 as result also if the email is already inside the database. But if i execute that sql code inside my xampp' server i obtain 1 so the code works perfectly.

Thank you to all for help :)

Answer 1

You need to do this:

$email = $_POST['email'];       
  try{            
        $sql = "SELECT mail FROM user WHERE mail = :email";   
        $sql = $pdo->prepare($sql);
        $sql->execute(array(':email'=> $email));       
  }catch(PDOException $e){            
      echo $e;            
      exit();        }
  if($sql->rowCount() == 0){            
     //registration complete        }
  else{            
      //email already in use        }