title: MySQL Return Type Variance - NULL, EMPTY, FALSE
body: <p>Why does <code>MySQL -&gt; PHP</code> via <code>PDO</code> sometimes either return <code>NULL</code>, <code>EMPTY</code> (array), or <code>FALSE</code> when a <code>SELECT</code> query (and possibly other types) returns a zero-result set?  </p>
  
  <p>I can't quite seem to figure out in which cases each different type is returned... and I hope its not written somewhere on the front cover of the manual;  although I did look a bit.</p>
  
  <p>EDIT 1:</p>
  
  <p>So it seems this is a PDO thing, not MySQL.  PDO->FetchAll() will return an empty array if the result-set is zero, and FALSE on error.  What about <code>NULL</code>?   <b>And NO the column values I am requesting are not NULL in case that silly thought came to your head.</b></p>