Gather Table Names + Data using mysqli and php - php

Question

I am trying to get the column names and data from a table using mysqli and php. Any help is appreciated.
I know how to do this in java by more or less this code:
String [] header= new String[numberOfColumns-1];
//Code to get column names in header array
String table = "<table><tr>"
for(int i=0;i<numberOfColumns-1;i++){
table= table + "<td>" + header[i] + </td>;
}
table = table + </tr>;
while(result.next()!=null){
table = table + <tr>
for (int j = 0 ; j < numberOfColumns-1 ; j++){
table = table + <td> + result.getString[j] + </td>
}
table = table + </tr>
}
But i have no idea how to do it in php. Each table is different but what i have to far for the one table:
include("config.php");
session_start();
$sql = ($_POST['q']);
$result = mysqli_query($db,$sql);
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>First Name</td>";
echo "<td>Last Name</td>";
echo "<td>Date of Birth</td>";
echo "<td>Contact Details</td>";
echo "</tr>";
while($rowitem = mysqli_fetch_array($result,MYSQLI_ASSOC)){
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>" . $rowitem['fname'] . "</td>";
echo "<td>" . $rowitem['lname'] . "</td>";
echo "<td>" . $rowitem['dob'] . "</td>";
echo "<td>" . $rowitem['contact'] . "</td>";*/
echo "</tr>";
}
echo "</table>"; //end table tag
EDIT: Is the implementation of the fetch_fields correct?
include("config.php");
session_start();
$sql = ($_POST['q']);
$result = mysqli_query($db,$sql);
$finfo = mysqli_fetch_fields($result);
echo "<tr>";
foreach ($finfo as $val) {
echo "<td>" . $val->name . "</td>"
}
echo "</tr>";
while($rowitem = mysqli_fetch_array($result,MYSQLI_ASSOC)){
echo "<tr>";
for($x =0; $x < count($finfo);$x++){
echo "<td>" . $rowitem[$x] . "/td";
}
echo "</tr>";
}
echo "</table>";
EDIT 2: Database Connection.php
<<?php
include("config.php");
session_start();
$sql = ($_GET['q']);
$result = mysqli_query($db,$sql);
echo "<table border='1' class='table_info'>";
$finfo = mysqli_fetch_fields($result);
echo "<tr>";
foreach ($finfo as $val) {
echo "<td>" . $val->name . "</td>";
}
echo "</tr>";
while($rowitem = mysqli_fetch_array($result,MYSQLI_ASSOC)){
echo "<tr>";
foreach ($row as $value) { (line 18)
echo "<td>" . $value . "</td>";
}
echo "</tr>";
}
echo "</table>"; //end table tag
?>
Error:
Notice: Undefined variable: row in databaseConnection.php on line 18
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in databaseConnection.php on line 18

Answer 1

You can call mysqli_fetch_fields on the $result object, and retrieve the name property for each object in the returned array. See documentation for examples.

Answer 2

There are a couple ways to do this:
Use array_keys() to grab the names of the keys from an associative array:
$rowitem = mysqli_fetch_array($result, MYSQLI_ASSOC);
$header = array_keys($rowitem);
Use mysqli_fetch_fields() to grab the field objects, and parse out the names into an array using array_map():
// Helper function to use in array_map
// (For PHP < 5.3. If >= 5.3.0, use the second version)
function getFieldName($field) { return $field->name; }
// For PHP < 5.3:
$header = array_map("getFieldName", mysqli_fetch_fields($result));
// For PHP >= 5.3.0:
$header = array_map(function($o) { return $o->name; }, mysqli_fetch_fields($result));

Answer 3

As mentioned you can use $result->fetch_fields() to get the field information from the result and this includes the name of each field.
For what you're trying to acheive this code should work for pretty much any table/query:
<?php
/* Connect to mysql */
$mysqli = new mysqli("localhost", "username", "password", "database");
/* Check connection */
if ($mysqli->connect_errno) {
printf("Connect failed: %s\n", $mysqli->connect_error);
exit();
}
/* Your query */
$query = "SELECT * from table";
if ($result = $mysqli->query($query)) {
/* Output HTML table */
echo "<table border='1'>";
/* Get field information for all returned columns */
$finfo = $result->fetch_fields();
/* Output each column name in first table row */
echo "<tr>";
foreach ($finfo as $val) {
echo "<td>".$val->name."</td>";
}
echo "</tr>";
/* Fetch the result and output each row into a table row */
while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result, MYSQLI_NUM)) {
echo "<tr>";
foreach ($row as $value) {
echo "<td>" . $value . "</td>";
}
echo "</tr>";
}
$result->free();
echo "</table>";
}
$mysqli->close();
(Obviously you should never query a database from a $_POST variable without some serious sanitisation of the input, but I'll assume that was just for your convenience.)

Answer 4

You can Echo in a table..
$result = mysqli_query($db,$sql)
if (!$result) {
die("Query to show fields from table failed");
}
$fields_num = mysqli_num_fields($result);
echo "<table border='1'><tr>";
// printing table headers
for($i=0; $i<$fields_num; $i++)
{
$field = mysqli_fetch_field($result);
echo "<td>{$field->name}</td>";
}
echo "</tr>\n";
// printing table rows
while($row = mysqli_fetch_row($result))
{
echo "<tr>";
// $row is array... foreach( .. ) puts every element
// of $row to $cell variable
foreach($row as $cell)
echo "<td>$cell</td>";
echo "</tr>\n";
}
mysqli_free_result($result);`