That error message isn't from DBI, it's from SQL Server (Sybase) itself.

What data type is the ordercode column in the database? If it's an integer, the bind_param should do the trick.

What I suspect is that it's a varchar and DBI is guessing that it's a number (based on the parameter value that's being passed). If so, you can use bind_param(1, $ordercode, SQL_VARCHAR) to make sure the right type goes thru. (Your note implies bind_param "didn't work", but you don't mention what happened.)

If all else fails, you can call CONVERT (the Transact-SQL function, not DBI) in your SQL, something like this:

$dbh->prepare('
    SELECT customercode
    FROM customerorders
    WHERE ordercode = CONVERT(varchar, ?)');
[download]

or other type. Again, you don't mention what type the column is, so I'm not sure if that code sample is 180 degrees out of phase. :-)

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