I believe this is probably the same issue, but I also notice that using MySQL to simply execute a SQL query which contains BLOB result columns is also returning strings instead of streams.  The difference being that I'm not using bindColumn() and specifying PDO::PARAM_LOB.  I wouldn't expect that I'd need to, since simply performing a standard fetch() works as expected w/ Postgres (and, I believe, Oracle).

I am using PHP 5.2.6 with MySQL 5.0.51b, and the problem is still present.

Reproduce code:
---------------

$sql = "SELECT FileName, ContentType, Size, FileData FROM `" . File::getTableName() . "` WHERE ID=?";
$stmt = $this->_DB->prepare($sql);
$stmt->execute(array($FileID));
$stmt->bindColumn(1, $name, PDO::PARAM_STR, 255);
$stmt->bindColumn(2, $type, PDO::PARAM_STR, 255);
$stmt->bindColumn(3, $size, PDO::PARAM_INT);
$stmt->bindColumn(4, $data, PDO::PARAM_LOB);

Expected result:
----------------

I am using PHP 5.2.6 with MySQL 5.0.51b, and the problem is still
present.

Reproduce code:
---------------

$sql = "SELECT FileData FROM UserFile WHERE ID=?";

$stmt = $DB->prepare($sql);
$stmt->execute(array($FileID));
$stmt->bindColumn(1, $data, PDO::PARAM_LOB);
$stmt->fetch(PDO::FETCH_BOUND);
echo gettype($data);

Expected result:
----------------
resource

Actual result:
--------------
string

Can verify this with PDO->mssql using 5.2.6 and Windows Server 2003. 

// Reproduction code:
$VIN = $_GET['VIN'];
	$imageUrl = $_GET['ImageUrl'];
	$sql_img = "SELECT VIN, Image, ImageUrl FROM ImagesDemo WHERE VIN = :VIN AND ImageUrl =  :imageUrl";
	$result_img = Database::pdo_prepare_query($sql_img, array(':VIN' => $VIN, ':imageUrl' => $imageUrl));
	$result_img->bindColumn('Image', $lob, PDO::PARAM_LOB);
	$result_img->fetch(PDO::FETCH_BOUND);
	header("Content-type: image/pjpeg");
        var_dump($lob); // string(4096) + raw image data
	fpassthru($lob); // this call fails with 'supplied argument is not a valid stream resource'
	echo $lob; // this call only spits out 4096 bytes, chopping the image off

End result -- unable to use pdo for blobs.

I can reproduce this bug with php5.2.6 on OpenSUSE 11.0

Ralf

Please try using this CVS snapshot:

  http://snaps.php.net/php5.2-latest.tar.gz
 
For Windows:

  http://windows.php.net/snapshots/

No feedback was provided for this bug for over a week, so it is
being suspended automatically. If you are able to provide the
information that was originally requested, please do so and change
the status of the bug back to "Open".

Problem still exists on Windows 2003 with PHP Version 5.2.10RC2-dev Build Date May 29 2009 11:39:28

Hi,
I still can reproduce the Problem with php5.3.0RC2.
Ralf

That error still does not seem to be solved in the current PHP version 5.3.0 nor in 5.2.10. At least it is not listed in the ChangeLog list of fixed bugs of that versions. 

It would be nice if, four years after PDO was released and almost two and a half years after that bug was first reported, someone could try to fix it, really test that fix and make shure it finds it's way into some release version of PHP. 

Until then, in my opinion the status of this bug report should be OPEN!

Best regards,
Ralph

I've just been able to reproduce this bug today running PHP 5.3.1 on 
Windows.

Reproduce Code:

$db = db::getConn();
$st = $db->prepare($sql);
$st->execute(array(':id' => $id));
$st->bindColumn(1, $image, PDO::PARAM_LOB);
$st->fetch(PDO::FETCH_BOUND);
header ('Content-type: image/jpeg');
fpassthru($image);// this call fails with 'supplied argument is not a
valid stream resource'

Expected result:
Resource

Actual result:
string

I can work around this error for what I'm trying to do but it would be 
nice if this was fixed.

I have experienced the same issue with Windows 2003 using SQL Server 9.0 and php 5.2.13.

Really disappointing that this bug can have been around for so many years without being fixed.

Is there a way to solve the problem and get a stream?
I want to make a pipeline directly from a longblob to the client.

The reason why I want to have a stream and not echo it directly is that I use a function that should return a stream.

And another reason why I need a stream and not a string is that a string would consume all the memory for a large object.

5.2 only gets security fixes, if at all. 

Can this be reproduced with 5.3.4-RC, using libmysql (recent one!), using mysqlnd?

Seems to be fixed in 5.3.4 final. I was struggling with this issue (and PHP 5.2.16) all evening before finding this post. I tried installing PHP 5.3.4 and voila, problem solved.

See last comment, works with 5.3.4

PHP 5.3.5
PARAM_LOB is returning a string instead of a stream.

Code:
-----
$stmt = $conn->prepare($qry);
$stmt->bindValue(1, $_GET['id']);
$stmt->bindValue(2, $_GET['aid']);
$stmt->execute();

$stmt->bindColumn(4, $mimeType, PDO::PARAM_STR, 256);
$stmt->bindColumn(6, $lob, PDO::PARAM_LOB);
$stmt->fetch(PDO::FETCH_BOUND);

echo gettype($lob);


Expected Result:
----------------
resource


Actual Result:
--------------
string

The problem is still present with PHP v. 5.3.10 and Ubuntu 12.10

As of PHP 5.3.15, this bug still exists.

The implementation for this is broken in PDO core. For PGSQL there is a workaround documented:

    Since information about the columns is not always
    available to PDO until the statement is executed,
    portable applications should call this function after 
    PDOStatement::execute().

    However, to be able to bind a LOB column as a stream
    when using the PgSQL driver, applications should call
    this method before calling PDOStatement::execute(),
    otherwise the large object OID will be returned as an integer.
    http://www.php.net/manual/en/pdostatement.bindcolumn.php

This works neither works with sqlite nor mysql drivers. After research I assume it won't work with other drivers either. The LOB-handling happens in the param_hook for PDO_PARAM_EVT_EXEC_PRE. But this event only happens if there are bound parameters during execute.
But result columns are bound after execute ...

The support for this feature has do be redesigned in PDO core ... as MySQL has no native stream support I don't support adding a hack for this.

PGSQL binds to a stream object for a LOB. Which PDO driver is this referring to?

Still present in PHP 5.4.9

Still in PHP 5.5.9

This must be the oldest unsolved PHP bug: 7 years!
Still broken with PHP 5.5.10.

Could a lead developer comment on this please?

Bug is still present in 5.5.17

This is still an issue with PHP 5.5.9 with MS SQL Server 2008 R2. Result is a string instead of a stream.

Well, it's 2015 now and still present in PHP-5.6.5.

It's now 2016, and I'm using PHP 5.6.18, and this issue is STILL present. I wonder if it's been fixed in php 7...

Still the same with PHP 7.0.4 and pdo_mysql. It returns a string instead of a resource.

PHP 7 would have been THE opportunity to fix weird behaviours such as this one. Missed again.

It's been 9 years now, since this bug has been open. Maybe we can wait for another 5 years before PHP 8 is released, and this bug can be fixed. Or not.

The fear to break backwards compatibility is SO enormous within the PHP community, that everyone prefers to carry on with bugs, rather than fixing them, so that bad code can continue working from one version to the other. Even major releases.

Hi,
it seems this bug won't be fixed soon.
Could you please at least update the doc to reflect that it is broken?

Wow, 11 years.

> The fear to break backwards compatibility is SO enormous within the PHP community, that everyone prefers to carry on with bugs, rather than fixing them, so that bad code can continue working from one version to the other.

That is so true, and one of the reasons why PHP is still being poorly considered by so many engineers.

Yup, I can confirm. Mentioned it in https://wiki.php.net/rfc/implement_sqlite_openblob_in_pdo

Will look into fixing that issue if I get some free time.

Fixed by https://github.com/php/php-src/commit/caa710037e663fd78f67533b29611183090068b2.