Getting the number of rows affected by a MySQL update is one thing, but how do I get the number of matching rows for an UPDATE query? Otherwise put, the number of rows that COULD have been affected by the update query, even if the data I'm trying to update the rows with is identical to the data already contained within them? Because in this specific case, the DB will not overwrite the data with, so the number of affected rows is 0.
Is there some PDO method that helps, similar to `PDOStatement::rowCount()` ?
I also want to avoid a secondary SQL statement, otherwise the question is pointless.