MySQL Native Driver is in most cases compatible with MySQL Client Library
(libmysql). This section documents incompatibilities
between these libraries.
Values of bit data type are returned as binary strings
(e.g. "\0" or "\x1F") with libmysql and as decimal
strings (e.g. "0" or "31") with mysqlnd. If you want the
code to be compatible with both libraries then always return bit fields as
numbers from MySQL with a query like this:
SELECT bit + 0 FROM table.