Natively Connect to DB2 Data in PHP



The CData ODBC driver for DB2 enables you to create PHP applications with connectivity to DB2 data. Leverage the native support for ODBC in PHP.

Drop the CData ODBC Driver for DB2 into your LAMP or WAMP stack to build DB2-connected Web applications. This article shows how to use PHP's ODBC built-in functions to connect to DB2 data, execute queries, and output the results.

Configure a DSN

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

Set the following properties to connect to DB2:

  • Server: Set this to the name of the server running DB2.
  • Port: Set this to the port the DB2 server is listening on.
  • Database: Set this to the name of the DB2 database.
  • User: Set this to the username of a user allowed to access the database.
  • Password: Set this to the password of a user allowed to access the database.

You will also need to install the corresponding DB2 driver:

  • Windows: Install the IBM Data Server Provider for .NET.

    On Windows, installing the IBM Data Server Provider is sufficient, as the installation registers it in the machine.config.

  • Java: Install the IBM Data Server Driver for JDBC.

    In the Java version, place the IBM Data Server Driver JAR in the www\WEB-INF\lib\ folder for this application.

Establish a Connection

Open the connection to DB2 by calling the odbc_connect or odbc_pconnect methods. To close connections, use odbc_close or odbc_close_all.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC DB2 Source","user","password");

Connections opened with odbc_connect are closed when the script ends. Connections opened with the odbc_pconnect method are still open after the script ends. This enables other scripts to share that connection when they connect with the same credentials. By sharing connections among your scripts, you can save system resources, and queries execute faster.

$conn = odbc_pconnect("CData ODBC DB2 Source","user","password"); ... odbc_close($conn); //persistent connection must be closed explicitly

Create Prepared Statements

Create prepared statements and parameterized queries with the odbc_prepare function.

$query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Orders WHERE ShipCity = ?");

Execute Queries

Execute prepared statements with odbc_execute.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC DB2 Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Orders WHERE ShipCity = ?"); $success = odbc_execute($query, array('New York'));

Execute nonparameterized queries with odbc_exec.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC DB2 Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT Orders.Freight, Customers.ContactName FROM Customers INNER JOIN Orders ON Customers.CustomerId=Orders.CustomerId");

Process Results

Access a row in the result set as an array with the odbc_fetch_array function.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC DB2 data Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_exec($conn, "SELECT Orders.Freight, Customers.ContactName FROM Customers INNER JOIN Orders ON Customers.CustomerId=Orders.CustomerId"); while($row = odbc_fetch_array($query)){ echo $row["OrderName"] . "\n"; }

Display the result set in an HTML table with the odbc_result_all function.

$conn = odbc_connect("CData ODBC DB2 data Source","user","password"); $query = odbc_prepare($conn, "SELECT * FROM Orders WHERE ShipCity = ?"); $success = odbc_execute($query, array('New York')); if($success) odbc_result_all($query);

More Example Queries

You will find complete information on the driver's supported SQL in the help documentation. The code examples above are DB2-specific adaptations of the PHP community documentation for all ODBC functions.

Ready to get started?

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IBM DB2 Icon IBM DB2 ODBC Driver

The IBM DB2 ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live data from IBM DB2, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access IBM DB2 data like you would a database - read, write, and update through a standard ODBC Driver interface.