PHP Functions

A php function is a piece of code that you call in your script. Functions are written in the php syntax which is: curly brackets > a word or keyword, and then an argument(s).

Built-in functions ship with PHP runtimes and extensions. User-defined functions are custom code you create for specific tasks. Functions can be called from anywhere in your script and must always start with the word function. You can also use anonymous functions to create one-time, throw-away functions that are not declared in your php file.

Functions in PHP can be passed by value or by reference. Passing by value means that the function uses a copy of the parameter. Passing by reference causes the function to make a new entry in PHP’s symbol table, which references an internal data structure that contains your variable type.

oci_set_prefetch

Sets the amount of pre-fetch data for each CLOB or BLOB in a SQL statement. The prefetch size increases performance by reducing the number of internal fetch requests to the database. The prefetch size does not affect LOBs returned as OCILob instances and does not change the amount of memory used by the implementation.

Returns an associative array of errors if there is any error in the Oracle connection (oci_connect(), oci_new_connect(), oci_pconnect()). The key is the oracle error code and the value is the oracle error message. As of PHP 4.3, offset and sqltext are also included in the array to indicate where the error was found in the original SQL text.