# PDO::exec

(PHP 5 >= 5.1.0, PHP 7, PECL pdo >= 0.1.0)

PDO::exec — Execute an SQL statement and return the number of affected rows

### Description

public PDO::exec ( string `$statement` ) : int

PDO::exec() executes an SQL statement in a single function call, returning the number of rows affected by the statement.

PDO::exec() does not return results from a SELECT statement. For a SELECT statement that you only need to issue once during your program, consider issuing PDO::query(). For a statement that you need to issue multiple times, prepare a PDOStatement object with PDO::prepare() and issue the statement with PDOStatement::execute().

### Parameters

`statement`

  The SQL statement to prepare and execute.

  Data inside the query should be properly escaped.

### Return Values

PDO::exec() returns the number of rows that were modified or deleted by the SQL statement you issued. If no rows were affected, PDO::exec() returns `0`.

Warning

This function may return Boolean `FALSE`, but may also return a non-Boolean value which evaluates to `FALSE`. Please read the section on Booleans for more information. Use the === operator for testing the return value of this function.

The following example incorrectly relies on the return value of PDO::exec(), wherein a statement that affected 0 rows results in a call to die():

`<?php
$db->exec() or die(print_r($db->errorInfo(), true)); // incorrect
?>`

### Examples

Example #1 Issuing a DELETE statement

Count the number of rows deleted by a DELETE statement with no WHERE clause.

`<?php
$dbh = new PDO('odbc:sample', 'db2inst1', 'ibmdb2');
/* Delete all rows from the FRUIT table */
$count = $dbh->exec("DELETE FROM fruit");
/* Return number of rows that were deleted */
print("Deleted $count rows.\n");
?>`

The above example will output:

    Deleted 1 rows.

### See Also

- PDO::prepare() - Prepares a statement for execution and returns a statement object
- PDO::query() - Executes an SQL statement, returning a result set as a PDOStatement object
- PDOStatement::execute() - Executes a prepared statement