PHP Conference Nagoya 2025

Microsoft SQL Server and Sybase Functions (PDO_DBLIB)

Introduction

PDO_DBLIB is a driver that implements the PHP Data Objects (PDO) interface to enable access from PHP to Microsoft SQL Server and Sybase databases through the FreeTDS library.

This extension is not available anymore on Windows.

On Windows, you should use SqlSrv, an alternative driver for MS SQL is available from Microsoft: » http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/ff657782.aspx .

If it is not possible to use SqlSrv, you can use the PDO_ODBC driver to connect to Microsoft SQL Server and Sybase databases, as the native Windows DB-LIB is ancient, thread un-safe and no longer supported by Microsoft.

Table of Contents

  • PDO_DBLIB DSN — Connecting to Microsoft SQL Server and Sybase databases
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User Contributed Notes 7 notes

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47
Johankasselman at live dot com
9 years ago
Hi All, I'wrote a class to connect to MSSQL/Azure databases with Transaction support.

Hope this can help anyone!

<?php
/**
* @author Johan Kasselman <johankasselman@live.com>
* @since 2015-09-28 V1
*
*/

class pdo_dblib_mssql{

private
$db;
private
$cTransID;
private
$childTrans = array();

public function
__construct($hostname, $port, $dbname, $username, $pwd){

$this->hostname = $hostname;
$this->port = $port;
$this->dbname = $dbname;
$this->username = $username;
$this->pwd = $pwd;

$this->connect();

}

public function
beginTransaction(){

$cAlphanum = "AaBbCc0Dd1EeF2fG3gH4hI5iJ6jK7kLlM8mN9nOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz";
$this->cTransID = "T".substr(str_shuffle($cAlphanum), 0, 7);

array_unshift($this->childTrans, $this->cTransID);

$stmt = $this->db->prepare("BEGIN TRAN [$this->cTransID];");
return
$stmt->execute();

}

public function
rollBack(){

while(
count($this->childTrans) > 0){
$cTmp = array_shift($this->childTrans);
$stmt = $this->db->prepare("ROLLBACK TRAN [$cTmp];");
$stmt->execute();
}

return
$stmt;
}

public function
commit(){

while(
count($this->childTrans) > 0){
$cTmp = array_shift($this->childTrans);
$stmt = $this->db->prepare("COMMIT TRAN [$cTmp];");
$stmt->execute();
}

return
$stmt;
}

public function
close(){
$this->db = null;
}

public function
connect(){

try {
$this->db = new PDO ("dblib:host=$this->hostname:$this->port;dbname=$this->dbname", "$this->username", "$this->pwd");



} catch (
PDOException $e) {
$this->logsys .= "Failed to get DB handle: " . $e->getMessage() . "\n";
}

}

}

?>
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4
Fabian G
6 years ago
Instead of using Mssql or DBLib extension you should use the official extensions from Microsoft from here: https://github.com/Microsoft/msphpsql
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10
graham1 dot simpson at hsbcib dot com
19 years ago
There is currently little sybase related PDO docs out there. The ones that I found often mention a spec for a dsn that is invalid. Here's how I am currently connecting to sybase ASE:

1. Compile up freetds http://www.freetds.org on top of open client;
2. Add the PDO and PD_DBLIB modules to php 5 as per the documentation; Note: I'm currently using the PDO-beta and PDO_DBLIB-beta;
3. Check mods installed ok using "pear list" and "php -m";

The documentation often says to use "sybase:" as your DSN, this doesn't work. Use "dblib:" instead. Here's an example:

<?php
try {
$hostname = "myhost";
$port = 10060;
$dbname = "tempdb";
$username = "dbuser";
$pw = "password";
$dbh = new PDO ("dblib:host=$hostname:$port;dbname=$dbname","$username","$pw");
} catch (
PDOException $e) {
echo
"Failed to get DB handle: " . $e->getMessage() . "\n";
exit;
}
$stmt = $dbh->prepare("select name from master..sysdatabases where name = db_name()");
$stmt->execute();
while (
$row = $stmt->fetch()) {
print_r($row);
}
unset(
$dbh); unset($stmt);
?>

Hope this helps.
up
3
support at converters dot ru
18 years ago
If You work with MSSQL Server 7.0/2000/... under Windows and use non latin Encoding then better To use PDO_MSSQL until PDO_ODBC bugs will be fixed (MSSQL ext far more stable and usabe for PHP versions <=5.1.2).
If your MSSQL connection use strings in OEM encoding (cp866 for russian charset)

1. Run Microsoft Server/Client Network Utility on work PC and UNCHECK "DBLibrary options"/"Automatic ANSI to OEM conversion"

2. Restart Web server if needed.
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2
Vic L
7 years ago
FYI: PDO dblib module (pdo_dblib.so) was installed when I installed php-mssql in CentOS 7. I thought php-mssql would just include the soon to be deprecated mssql PHP functions but it also contains the PDO connector. After installing this I'm able to connect to our MSSQL 2014 DB via PDO!
up
1
fleduc dot perso at gmail dot com
7 years ago
Watch out!

If you use PDO SQLSRV on windows 7, using 32 bit php on XAMMP, you might encounter driver problems : "This extension requires the Microsoft ODBC Driver 11 for SQL Server to communicate with SQL Server"

The reason, Microsoft 32-bit ODBC driver doesn't install properly on 64-bit Windows 7.

Check the solution to PDO SQLSRV driver problem here in StackOverflow

https://stackoverflow.com/a/46245990/1330248
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1
ian at helastel dot com
12 years ago
For people with issues inserting UTF-8 / Unicode data using DBLIB, you can't do this natively - but you can workaround the problem by converting the data first.

e.g. inserting into a nvarchar column with collation Latin1_General_CI_AS

...
$res = $db->prepare($sql);
$res->bindValue(':value', iconv('UTF-8', 'ISO8859-1', $value);
...
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