Question

Why do you have to specify variable names as a string value with this function? Why can’t I just use the variable name directly? This seems very silly to me.

Example:
db2_bind_param($prepared, 1, “foo1”);

Answer 1

As stated in the manual, it is the variable, to which the resource is bound to:

bool db2_bind_param(resource $stmt , int $parameter-number , string $variable-name, ...)

That way, you have a clean signature, because it always returns a boolean and no other data type. Other functions return either false or a resource. I believe, that the library has been ported from a strongly typed language like c or c++. In these languages, you can only specify one return type in the signature – something like bool|resource db2_bind_param(...) does not work.

In the end you are right: In a loosely typed language like PHP, you do not need it.