You can pass a "false" value to oci_execute() and this returns a null value, instead of the documented false value.
<?php
$conn = oci_connect('username', 'password, '//hostname:1521/DB');
$result = oci_execute(false);
var_dump($result);
?>
Results in "null", so performing an Identical test:
<?php
if ($results === false) {
//throw exception
}
?>
won't trap a problem, where as the Equal test (==) would:
<?php
if ($results == false) {
//throw exception
}
?>
So testing the result of a statement like oci_parse() is important!