Question

I noticed PDO::FETCH_INTO fetch mode doesn’t work inside PDOStatement::fetch() but in the manual it says you can use PDO::FETCH_INTO with PDOStatement::fetch().

I was trying to do:
$query->fetch( PDO::FETCH_INTO, $user );

This returns: PDOStatement::fetch() expects parameter 2 to be long, object given

Wouldn’t that mean the manual is kind of misleading? And what would be the proper way of using PDO::FETCH_INTO in this case?

Answer 1

Try this way:

$stmt->setFetchMode(PDO::FETCH_INTO, $user);
$user = $stmt->fetch();

UPDATE:

If you have private/protected properties with public setters (which is recommended) instead of public properties, use FETCH_CLASS instead:

class User {
    protected $username;

    public setUsername($username) {
        $this->username = $username;
    }
...
}
...
$stmt->setFetchMode(PDO::FETCH_CLASS, 'User');
$user = $stmt->fetch();

UPDATE 2:

Using PDO::FETCH_CLASS, you don’t even need the setter (EDIT: don’t need the setter for PDO, which is good for id fields):

class User {
    protected $username;
...
}
...
$stmt->setFetchMode(PDO::FETCH_CLASS, 'User');
$user = $stmt->fetch();

UPDATE 3: see full example here: http://pastebin.com/LneAj0xn