Mysql join 2 table with same column name without using an alias - php

Question

I got this example, but I want to know in an overall way, how to fetch 2 column with the same name in MySQL without using an alias?
Example:
$query = "SELECT app.*, categorie.* FROM app JOIN categorie ON app.id = categorie.id";
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)) {
$categorie = $row[categorie.name]; //is there a way to do this?
$aplicativo = $row[app.name];
}
This example is simply solved with an alias, but is there another way, something like the example? Thank you for your time

Answer 1

mysql_fetch_array
Warning
This extension is deprecated as of PHP 5.5.0, and will be removed in the future. Instead, the MySQLi or PDO_MySQL extension should be used. See also MySQL: choosing an API guide and related FAQ for more information. Alternatives to this function include:
mysqli_fetch_array()
PDOStatement::fetch()
If two or more columns of the result have the same field names, the last column will take precedence. To access the other column(s) of the same name, you must use the numeric index of the column or make an alias for the column. For aliased columns, you cannot access the contents with the original column name.
Example #1 Query with aliased duplicate field names
SELECT table1.field AS foo, table2.field AS bar FROM table1, table2
So in your case the query should be, as the documentation suggests, using alias or numeric index:
SELECT app.name as "app.name",... , categorie.name as "categorie.name",... FROM app JOIN categorie ON app.id = categorie.id

Answer 2

Use PDO's FETCH_NUM type when fetching your rows to get a 0 indexed array that will contain both values, even if they have the same column name.
function selectStuff(\PDO $pdo)
{
$stmt = $pdo->prepare('SELECT app.name, categorie.name FROM app JOIN categorie ON app.id = categorie.id');
$stmt->execute();
foreach ($stmt->fetchAll(\PDO::FETCH_NUM) as $row) {
// $row[0] contains app.name
// $row[1] contains categorie.name
}
}
You have to leverage a 0 indexed fetching of columns to be able to do that without alias. The reason is simple: you can't logically access two different values in an array if they share the same key.
Notice that I explicitely named the columns to be selected. You should prefer that to selecting all fields, for readability reason, and also (arguably this is in most cases not noticeable) for performance reasons.

Answer 3

Disclaimer: mysql_fetch_array()
I understand this is not what should be recommended theese days, but I havent moved away as of yet since its still running great on any PHP 5.x server around where I'm from. Soon the time is there so I can refactor my codebase, maby even sooner for all I know. That being said...
Back to your question...
I was googling and looking for something else I see after reading, but I am beginning to understand that the entire approach of being able to read what you are asking for has no practical use in real world. That is, compared to changing your query adding some aliases like this:
$query = "SELECT app.name AS appname, categorie.name AS categoriename, app., categorie. FROM app JOIN categorie ON app.id = categorie.id";
This way your returned query returns more fields with unique names so you can access them like you ask for.
But say you were looking for a way to accomplish what you ask without changing your sql-query. You need to know the order of results, especially if there are more than one ambiguous name in the list as you will not be able to reorder the ambiguous fields, MySQL does return all your fields you see its just the way an array works you do not get the answers you want. Or, my disclaimer, this is one of the reasons I should move away from this MYSQL_FUNCTIONS... (I hope so because if so this is a damn great reason alone, mysql_fetch_assoc() should have an option to lay ouu an array of results as for this example would be ['id','name','id','name'])
You do not say anthing about your DB however say they both have two columns id and name for this example. Return results for each database would be id, name or in the case of your query it would be : id, name, id, name
How does this work? A resulted array from mysql_fetch_array() looks like this:
Say app db has values: 1, app name
Say category db has values: 2, category name
Array
(
[0] => 1
[id] => 2
[1] => 'app name'
[name] => 'category name'
[2] => 2
[3] => 'category name'
)
So if you know the order of results you can atleast access the different fields even if they have the same name. However looking at the simple example above it would be hard to say if [2] is [id] or [name] but if you know the order...
Then again, select * and someone changes the database... adds a column...

Answer 4

$query = "SELECT app.name as `appname`, categorie.name as `catname`,
and_maybe_other_columns_here
FROM app JOIN categorie ON app.id = categorie.id";
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)) {
$categorie = $row['appname']; //is there a way to do this?
$aplicativo = $row['catname'];
}