return one value from database with mysql php pdo

Question

Im not trying to use a loop. I just one one value from one column from one row. I got what I want with the following code but there has to be an easier way using PDO.

try {         $conn = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=advlou_test', 'advlou_wh', 'advlou_wh');         $conn->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);     } catch(PDOException $e) {         echo 'ERROR: ' . $e->getMessage();     }  $userid = 1;  $username = $conn->query("SELECT name FROM `login_users` WHERE username='$userid'"); $username2 = $username->fetch(); $username3 = $username2['name'];  echo $username3; 

This just looks like too many lines to get one value from the database. :\

Answer 1

You can use fetchColumn():

$q= $conn->prepare("SELECT name FROM `login_users` WHERE username=?"); $q->execute([$userid]); $username = $q->fetchColumn();