You can't use it not only with SELECT statement, but any statement that might return rows. "OPTIMIZE table" is such example (returns some rows with optimization status).
If you do, PDO will lock-up with the "Cannot execute queries while other unbuffered queries are active." nonsense.
PDO->exec()
(PHP 5 >= 5.1.0, PECL pdo:0.1-1.0.3)
PDO->exec() — Execute an SQL statement and return the number of affected rows
Descrição
PDO->exec() executes an SQL statement in a single function call, returning the number of rows affected by the statement.
PDO->exec() does not return results from a SELECT statement. For a SELECT statement that you only need to issue once during your program, consider issuing PDO->query(). For a statement that you need to issue multiple times, prepare a PDOStatement object with PDO->prepare() and issue the statement with PDOStatement->execute().
Parâmetros
- statement
-
The SQL statement to prepare and execute.
Valor Retornado
PDO->exec() returns the number of rows that were modified or deleted by the SQL statement you issued. If no rows were affected, PDO->exec() returns 0.
Esta função pode retornar o booleano FALSE, mas também pode retornar um valor não-booleano que pode ser avaliado como FALSE, como 0 ou "". Leia a seção em Booleanos para maiores informações. Utilize o operador === para testar o valor retornado por esta função.
The following example incorrectly relies on the return value of PDO->exec(), wherein a statement that affected 0 rows results in a call to die():
<?php
$db->exec() or die($db->errorInfo());
?>
Exemplos
Example#1 Issuing a DELETE statement
Count the number of rows deleted by a DELETE statement with no WHERE clause.
<?php
$dbh = new PDO('odbc:sample', 'db2inst1', 'ibmdb2');
/* Delete all rows from the FRUIT table */
$count = $dbh->exec("DELETE FROM fruit WHERE colour = 'red'");
/* Return number of rows that were deleted */
print("Deleted $count rows.\n");
?>
O exemplo acima irá imprimir:
Deleted 1 rows.
PDO->exec()
05-Sep-2007 12:07
10-May-2007 06:12
If you do this:
$res = $dbh->query("SELECT * FROM sessions WHERE session_id = '$p_sessID'");
$l_records = $res->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
if( $l_records ) {
// ...update session-data
$l_theQuery = "UPDATE sessions SET session_expires='$newExp', session_data='$p_sessData' WHERE session_id='$p_sessID'";
echo $l_theQuery;
$l_stmt = $this->db->prepare($l_theQuery);
if ( $l_stmt ) {
$l_rows = $l_stmt->execute();
}
}
You will get nothing.
But do this:
$dbh->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_WARNING);
Prior to the code above, you will get this:
"PDO::prepare(): SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 2014 Cannot execute queries while other unbuffered queries are active. Consider using PDOStatement::fetchAll(). Alternatively, if your code is only ever going to run against mysql, you may enable query buffering by setting the PDO::MYSQL_ATTR_USE_BUFFERED_QUERY attribute."
So, instead of fetch(), use fetchAll(), it will make you less insane.
Incidentally, the INSERT statement that I was issuing, if the record that I needed to update didn't yet exist, after the initial fetch() command worked perfectly.
Changing to fetchAll() fixed it.

PDO->errorInfo()