Support for binding Oracle PL/SQL BOOLEAN introduced in PHP OCI8 2.0.7

I've released PHP OCI8 2.0.7 which has oci_bind_by_name() support for binding PL/SQL's BOOLEAN type to PHP's boolean. The feature is available when PHP OCI8 2.0.7 is linked-with and connects-to Oracle Database 12c. (The necessary Oracle C library support for binding BOOLEAN was introduced in 12c).

Following the existing PHP OCI8 convention, there are two new constants usable with oci_bind_by_name(): SQLT_BOL and OCI_B_BOL. They have identical values. The former mirrors the underlying Oracle library constant's name (yes, it only has one "O"). The latter follows the PHP OCI8 style of having OCI_B_-prefixed names for bind constants. Note the constants can't be used for array binding with oci_bind_array_by_name().

An example usng the new PHP OCI8 2.0.7 feature is:

<?php

/*
  Precreate this PL/SQL function:
    create or replace function is_valid(p in number) return boolean as
    begin
      if (p < 10) then
        return true;
      else
        return false;
      end if;
    end;
    /

*/

$c = oci_connect('hr', 'welcome', 'localhost/pdborcl');

$sql = "begin :r := is_valid(40); end;";
$s = oci_parse($c, $sql);
oci_bind_by_name($s, ':r', $r, -1, SQLT_BOL);  // no need to give length
oci_execute($s);
var_dump($r);                                  // Outputs: bool(false)

?>

Prior to OCI8 2.0.7 you had to write a wrapper PL/SQL block that mapped the PL/SQL true or false values to 1 or 0.

Code without using OCI8 2.0.7:

$sql = "begin if (is_valid(40) = true) then :r := 1; else :r := 0; end if; end;";
$s = oci_parse($c, $sql);
oci_bind_by_name($s, ':r', $r, -1, SQLT_INT);
oci_execute($s);
echo "Result is " . ($r ? "true" : "false") . "\n";  // Outputs: Result is false

The new functionality removes one small pain point and makes your interaction with Oracle Database 12c PL/SQL cleaner and easier.

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