PHP PDO::errorInfo Method

last modified April 19, 2025

The PDO::errorInfo method in PHP provides detailed error information about the last operation performed by a PDO database handle. It returns an array.

Basic Definition

PDO::errorInfo fetches extended error information associated with the last operation on the database handle. It returns an array of error information.

Syntax: public PDO::errorInfo(): array. The array contains three fields: SQLSTATE error code, driver-specific error code, and error message.

Basic errorInfo Example

This shows a simple example of using errorInfo after a failed query.

pdo_errorinfo_basic.php

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

try { $pdo = new PDO(‘mysql:host=localhost;dbname=testdb’, ‘user’, ‘password’); $pdo->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_SILENT);

$stmt = $pdo->query('SELECT * FROM non_existent_table');

if ($stmt === false) {
    $error = $pdo->errorInfo();
    echo "SQLSTATE: {$error[0]}\n";
    echo "Driver Code: {$error[1]}\n";
    echo "Error Message: {$error[2]}\n";
}

} catch (PDOException $e) { echo “Error: " . $e->getMessage(); }

This example attempts to query a non-existent table. With ERRMODE_SILENT, errors don’t throw exceptions. errorInfo provides detailed error information.

errorInfo with Prepared Statements

This demonstrates using errorInfo with prepared statement execution errors.

pdo_errorinfo_prepared.php

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

try { $pdo = new PDO(‘mysql:host=localhost;dbname=testdb’, ‘user’, ‘password’); $pdo->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_SILENT);

$stmt = $pdo->prepare('INSERT INTO users (name, email) VALUES (?, ?)');
$result = $stmt->execute(['John Doe', 'invalid-email']);

if ($result === false) {
    $error = $stmt->errorInfo();
    echo "Error: {$error[2]}\n";
    echo "SQLSTATE: {$error[0]}\n";
} else {
    echo "Record inserted successfully\n";
}

} catch (PDOException $e) { echo “Error: " . $e->getMessage(); }

This shows errorInfo usage with a prepared statement. If execute fails, errorInfo provides details. Note we use the statement’s errorInfo method.

Comparing errorInfo and errorCode

This example compares errorInfo with the simpler errorCode method.

pdo_errorinfo_vs_errorcode.php

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

try { $pdo = new PDO(‘mysql:host=localhost;dbname=testdb’, ‘user’, ‘password’); $pdo->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_SILENT);

$result = $pdo->exec('DELETE FROM non_existent_table');

if ($result === false) {
    echo "errorCode: " . $pdo->errorCode() . "\n";
    
    $errorInfo = $pdo->errorInfo();
    echo "Full error info:\n";
    print_r($errorInfo);
}

} catch (PDOException $e) { echo “Error: " . $e->getMessage(); }

This shows the difference between errorCode and errorInfo. errorCode returns just the SQLSTATE while errorInfo provides complete error details in an array.

errorInfo with Transactions

This demonstrates using errorInfo when a transaction fails.

pdo_errorinfo_transaction.php

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

try { $pdo = new PDO(‘mysql:host=localhost;dbname=testdb’, ‘user’, ‘password’); $pdo->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_SILENT);

$pdo->beginTransaction();

$result1 = $pdo->exec("UPDATE accounts SET balance = balance - 100 WHERE user_id = 1");
$result2 = $pdo->exec("UPDATE non_existent_table SET balance = balance + 100 WHERE user_id = 2");

if ($result1 === false || $result2 === false) {
    $pdo->rollBack();
    $error = $pdo->errorInfo();
    echo "Transaction failed: {$error[2]}\n";
} else {
    $pdo->commit();
    echo "Transaction completed successfully\n";
}

} catch (PDOException $e) { echo “Error: " . $e->getMessage(); }

This shows errorInfo usage in a transaction context. When one query fails, we roll back and use errorInfo to get details about what went wrong.

Database-Specific Error Codes

This example shows how errorInfo returns driver-specific error codes.

pdo_errorinfo_driver_codes.php

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

try { $pdo = new PDO(‘mysql:host=localhost;dbname=testdb’, ‘user’, ‘password’); $pdo->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_SILENT);

// Attempt to violate a unique constraint
$result = $pdo->exec("INSERT INTO users (email) VALUES ('duplicate@example.com')");

if ($result === false) {
    $error = $pdo->errorInfo();
    echo "MySQL Error Code: {$error[1]}\n";
    echo "Error Message: {$error[2]}\n";
    
    // MySQL specific error code for duplicate entry
    if ($error[1] == 1062) {
        echo "Duplicate entry detected!\n";
    }
}

} catch (PDOException $e) { echo “Error: " . $e->getMessage(); }

This demonstrates how to use the driver-specific error code (array index 1) to detect specific error conditions like duplicate entries in MySQL.

errorInfo with Different Databases

This shows how errorInfo works with SQLite versus MySQL.

pdo_errorinfo_multidb.php

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

// MySQL example try { $mysql = new PDO(‘mysql:host=localhost;dbname=testdb’, ‘user’, ‘password’); $mysql->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_SILENT);

$result = $mysql->exec("INVALID SQL");
if ($result === false) {
    echo "MySQL Error:\n";
    print_r($mysql->errorInfo());
}

} catch (PDOException $e) { echo “MySQL Error: " . $e->getMessage(); }

// SQLite example try { $sqlite = new PDO(‘sqlite:/path/to/database.sqlite’); $sqlite->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_SILENT);

$result = $sqlite->exec("INVALID SQL");
if ($result === false) {
    echo "\nSQLite Error:\n";
    print_r($sqlite->errorInfo());
}

} catch (PDOException $e) { echo “SQLite Error: " . $e->getMessage(); }

This shows how errorInfo works across different database systems. While the array structure is consistent, the specific codes and messages vary by driver.

Best Practices for errorInfo

• Check for Errors: Always verify operations succeeded before calling errorInfo.

• Use with ERRMODE_SILENT: errorInfo is most useful in silent error mode.

• Statement vs Connection: Call errorInfo on the appropriate object (statement or connection).

• Log Full Details: For debugging, log the entire errorInfo array.

• User-Friendly Messages: Don’t expose raw errorInfo to users.

Source

PHP PDO::errorInfo Documentation

This tutorial covered the PDO::errorInfo method with practical examples showing how to retrieve and interpret database error information in PHP.

Author

My name is Jan Bodnar, and I am a passionate programmer with extensive programming experience. I have been writing programming articles since 2007. To date, I have authored over 1,400 articles and 8 e-books. I possess more than ten years of experience in teaching programming.

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