Prepared query is not returning expected result trying to find user

Question

I have one result when I do this in phpMyAdmin:

SELECT password, block FROM jml_users WHERE username = "user01" 

However in my PHP code the script does not find my user. Am I doing something wrong with $stmt->bind_param("s", $unsafe_user);?

I also tried $stmt->bind_param("s", "user01"); with no luck.

<?
include("dbinfo.php");
$unsafe_user = "user01";
$mysqli = new mysqli($loginURL, $dbusername, $dbpassword, $database);

LoginCheck();

// Kill connection 
$thread_id = $mysqli->thread_id;    // determine our thread id 
$mysqli->kill($thread_id);
$mysqli->close();

function LoginCheck()
{
    global $mysqli, $unsafe_user;   

    //Perpare Statement.    
    //if($stmt = $mysqli->prepare("SELECT password, block FROM jml_users WHERE (username) VALUES (?)")) // this returns false for some reason
    if($stmt = $mysqli->prepare("SELECT password, block FROM jml_users WHERE username = ?")) //works, still safe form sql injection?
    {
        $stmt->bind_param("s", $unsafe_user);
        $stmt->execute();

        $stmt->bind_result($dbpw, $bdblock);

        if($stmt->num_rows == 0)
        {
            echo "could not find user";
        }
        // Found user
        else
        {
            echo "found user";
        }

        $stmt->close();
    }
    else
    {
        echo "Statement creation did not succeed";
    }
}
?>

Answer 1

The first query you commented out is invalid MYSQL syntax. That type of syntax is for inserts.

Also num_rows won't work with prepared statements unless you use $stmt->store_result(); after $stmt->execute();.

Check this answer in the documentation.