Convert MySQL result to an array strings - php

I am selecting names of my products from products table in MySQL then I want to present these names to something like $names = array(name1, name2, ...) Where name1, ... are the names of the products from MySQL. I have gone through suggested similar cases but none seems to solve my problem. I am a newbie and just trying to learn.

$result = mysql_query("SELECT name FROM products");
$names=array();
while ($row = mysql_fetch_row($result)) $names[]=$row[0];
mysql_free_result($result);
You need the loop, as there is no way to directly get all rows of the complete result set.

$result = mysql_query("
SELECT `productname` FROM `products`
")or die($result."<br/><br/>".mysql_error());
$numrows = mysql_num_rows($result);
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{
$productname[$i] = $row['productname'];
// to print out use the following
echo $productname[$i];
$i++;
}

Well, from an academic point of view, I suppose there's a "viable" alternative in doing something like
$names = explode('<|>', mysql_result(mysql_query(
"SELECT GROUP_CONCAT(name separator '<|>') FROM products GROUP BY 'name'"
), 0));
All the power of loops and arrays in single line, for the low, low price of making baby Jesus cry. And yes, you should probably use a loop. Unless you have a phobia ever since a loop waited for you outside your school when you were little and beat you up, I guess.

Dunno why everione sticked to one-liner but anyway it's always good idea to make your code less bloated
create a function
function dbGgetCol($sql) {
$ret = array();
$res = mysql_query($sql) or trigger_error(mysql_error()." in ".$sql);
if ($res) {
while ($row = mysql_fetch_row($result)) {
$ret[] = $row[0];
}
mysql_free_result($res);
}
return $ret;
}
place it in some config file included into each script
and then get your array with this simple code
$names = dbGetCol("SELECT name FROM products");

Related

Understanding mysqli_fetch_array()

Is there a way to make the code below cleaner?
I wanted to access the rows of $query4week like this: $query4week[0].
But mysqli_query() returns an Object on which I don't know how to access its particular rows. So, using fetch_array and a for loop I decided to create my own index.
$sql2 = "SELECT * FROM meals ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 7";
$query4week = mysqli_query($con, $sql2) or die(mysqli_error($con));
for ($i = 0; $result = mysqli_fetch_array($query4week, MYSQLI_ASSOC); $i++)
{
$meal4week[$i] = $result['meal'];
}
I am still learning PHP and yet quite weak with OOP topics, please be patient :-)
Do it in this way
$i = 0;
while ($result = mysqli_fetch_array($query4week, MYSQLI_ASSOC))
{
$meal4week[$i] = $result['meal'];
$i++;
}
should work.
You shouldn't need a for loop if your fetching an associative array.
$i = 0;
while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($query4week, MYSQLI_ASSOC))
{
$meal4week[$i] = $row['meal'];
$i++;
}
There are already some perfectly reasonable answers here, but this is a little long for a comment. If all you are creating is a numerically indexed array starting with index 0, you don't need to explicitly define the index.
while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($query4week, MYSQLI_ASSOC)) {
$meal4week[] = $row['meal'];
}
should work just fine. No $i necessary.
mysqli_query returns you a resource which represents the query result. You need to use the mysql_fetch_* functions to iterate over the result row by row. So yes, you need some kind of loop, if you are interested in more than the first row.

How do I insert values into an multidimensional-array, then show them?

I'm fairly new to php, and I don't know how to work with arrays very well. Here's the deal, I want to add into a multidimensional array three or more values I obtain from my database, then I want to sort them based on the timestamp (one of the values). After that, I want to show all of the sorted values. I can't seem to do this, here's the code
$queryWaitingPatients = 'SELECT ArrivalTime, TargetTime, Order, Classification FROM exams WHERE (CurrentState = "Pending")';
$results = mysql_query($queryWaitingPatients) or die(mysql_error());
if (mysql_num_rows($results) == 0) {
echo '<p>There\'s currently no patient on the waiting list.</p>';
return;
}
while ($rows = mysql_fetch_array($results)) {
extract($rows);
//now is the part that I don't know, putting the values into an array
}
// I'm also not sure how to sort this according to my $TargetTime
asort($sortedTimes);
//the other part I don't know, showing the values,
Thanks for the help!
Well, let's look at your code. First, you have a query that's returning a result set. I don't recommend using mysql_fetch_array because it's not only deprecated (use mysqli functions instead) but it tends to lend itself to bad code. It's hard to figure out what you're referencing when all your keys are numbers. So I recommend mysqli_fetch_assoc (be sure you're fully switched to the mysqli functions first, like mysql_connect and mysqli_query)
Second, I really dislike using extract. We need to work with the array directly. Here's how we do this
$myarray = array();
while ($rows = mysqlI_fetch_assoc($results)) {
$myarray[] = $rows;
}
echo $myarray[0]['ArrivalTime'];
So let's go over this. First, we're building an array of arrays. So we initialize our overall array. Then we want to push the rows onto this array. That's what $myarray[] does. Finally, the array we're pushing is associative, meaning all the keys of the row match up with the field names of your query.
Now, the sorting really needs to be done in your query. So let's tweak your query
$queryWaitingPatients = 'SELECT ArrivalTime, TargetTime, `Order`, Classification
FROM exams
WHERE CurrentState = "Pending"
ORDER BY TargetTime';
This way, when your PHP runs, your database now churns them out in the correct order for your array. No sorting code needed.
$arr = array();
while ($rows = mysql_fetch_array($results)) {
array_push ($arr, $row);
}
print_r($arr);
<?php
$queryWaitingPatients = ' SELECT ArrivalTime, TargetTime, Order, Classification, CurrentState
FROM exams
WHERE CurrentState = "Pending"
ORDER BY TargetTime ';
$results = mysql_query($queryWaitingPatients) or die(mysql_error());
if ($results -> num_rows < 1)
{
echo '<p>There\'s currently no patient on the waiting list.</p>';
}
else
{
while ($rows = mysqli_fetch_array($results))
{
$arrivaltime = $row['ArrivalTime'];
$targettime = $row['targettime'];
$order = $row['Order'];
$classification = $row['Classification'];
echo "Arrival: ".$arrivaltime."--Target time: ".$targettime."--Order: ".$order."--Classification: ".$classification;
}
}
echo "Done!";
//or you could put it in a json array and pass it to client side.
?>

getting results of SQL query

I've seen there there are numerous ways to put the results of a SQL query into usable format (that is, variables).
If I have a targeted SQL query that I know will be returning a set of expected values, lets say querying a customer number to pull data, city, state, first and last name, etc..
Code example follows:
$example = '50';
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM customers WHERE customer_ID = '$example'",$db);
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
foreach ($row as $col => $val) {
if ($col == 'firstname') {
$customerfirstname = $val;
}
}
}
or another way:
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM customers WHERE customer_ID = '$example'",$db);
$myResultArray = array();
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
$myResultArray = $row;
foreach ($myResultArray as $val) {
$customerfirstname = $val['firstname'];
}
That's just two that I could think of.
Is one of the above methods preferable over the other? If so, why?
Is there an alternate method that is even more efficient than either of these?
Neither are preferred.
The foreach's are superfluous.
Since you know the fieldnames you need, you can just do:
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
$customerfirstname = $row['firstname'];
}
If you do need to apply a conditional for some reason, you can test for the field's existence in the array:
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
if (isset($row['firstname'])) {
$customerfirstname = $row['firstname'];
}
}
Finally, since you appear to be selecting by primary key, the while loop is also unnecessary:
if ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
$customerfirstname = $row['firstname'];
}
I have used the first example that you posed in every website I have done that requires a database and it hasn't failed me yet. As far as if one is better than the other I'd say no. It's just a matter of taste.
There are many ways. Here's a quick one, but I would prefer to set it up using a DTO and accessing it that way... this will work though for your question.
$query = "SELECT first_name, last_name, city FROM customers WHERE customer_id = '$example'";
$result = mysql_query($query);
// If you are expecting only one row of data, then use this:
list($first_name, $last_name, $city) = mysql_fetch_row($result);
//several rows:
while(list($first_name, $last_name, $city) = mysql_fetch_row($result)){
echo $first_name;
}
I seem to be missing something...
Why not this?
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM customers WHERE customer_ID = '$example'",$db);
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
$customerfirstname = $row['firstname'];
}
In the first example?

Load row from MySQL depending on php?id=*

I'm fairly new to PHP and MySQL (experienced with other languages). Basically I want to load data from a row relative to its id stated in the URL. Example, load the 3rd row when "index.php?id=3"
Heres what I've managed to do so far: http://pastie.org/1436865
I pretty sure this question has been asked a million times over, but I don't know what term to search far and have not been able to find anything so far :S
Thanks guys
The part id=3... is called query string and you can access it using the $_GET array (see PHP: Predefined Variables).
BTW: It does not make sense to load the 3rd row from a database table, because the rows in the database table do not have an ordering (so instead of a list of rows, a set of records is a more appropriate analogy in this case). Records are usually identified by a so called primary key and you have to make sure yourself, that your database tables have a primary key.
Or if you prefer array's instead of objects try something like this:
$query="SELECT * FROM table WHERE id=".(int)$_GET['id']." LIMIT 1";
$result=mysql_query($query);
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC)) {
echo $row['column'];
}
or if you like indexed columns
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_NUM)) {
echo $row[0];
}
or both (column names and indexes):
while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_BOTH)) {
echo $row[0].'-'.$row['column'];
}
You can even use this if you need only one row:
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table WHERE id=".(int)$_GET['id']);
$row = mysql_fetch_row($result);
echo $row[0];
Based on all these not-so-clear but working examples, you can make a function:
function getRow($query){
$res = mysql_query($query);
if (!$res) {
trigger_error(mysql_error." in ".$query);
return array();
}
$row = mysql_fetch_assoc($res));
if ($row) return $row;
return array();
}
then store it into some library file, then include this file into your script and call with just single line
$data = getRow("SELECT * FROM tablename WHERE id=".intval($_GET['id']));
Also note Oswald's note, it's very important. You can't and you shouldn't rely on the row's relative position as there is no position at all. A DB table is a heap, not ordered list.
Use certain unique field value to address certain row. That's the way to go
The simplest way is
$id = (int) $_GET['id'];;
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM tablename WHERE id=".$id);
while($res = mysql_fetch_object($result)){
echo $res->columnname;
}
Of course, you should check input parameters, etc. This is only approach.

How to put MySQL cell values into variables named after column names in PHP

This code selects cell values in MySQL and manually adds them to PHP variables:
$sql = "SELECT * FROM table LIMIT 0,1";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
while($rows = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
$col1 = $rows['col1'];
$col2 = $rows['col2'];
$col3 = $rows['col3'];
.....
}
This is obviously unmanageable for multiple and large tables.
What's a better way to automatically generate the variable names and values without manually entering all the column names on all tables?
I think this is what you're looking for
$sql = "SELECT * FROM table LIMIT 0,1";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
while ($rows = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC)) {
foreach ($rows as $key => $value) {
$$key = $value;
}
}
You could use extract() for that. But I'd keep the values in the array.
..SELECT x,y,z FROM ..
while( false!==($rows=mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_ASSOC)) ) {
extract($rows);
echo $x;
...
}
Wouldn't it be more convenient having associative arrays? That way you can call your variables with their column name as you describe plus you have the benefit of having them bundled in one unit which is much better if you need to pass more than one of them to any function or view or whatever.
so I would use mysql_fetch_assoc and that's it.
I don't recommend having a variable for each row, I used to do the same to simplify writing HTML later:
echo "<tr><td>$name</td><td>$count</td></tr>";
Instead of:
echo "<tr><td>{$row['name']}</td><td>{$row['count']}</td></tr>";
Until I found a better and more readable way do it using mysql_fetch_object
while ($row = mysql_fetch_object($result)) {
:
echo "<tr><td>{$row->name}</td><td>{$row->count}</td></tr>";
:
}
Use variable variables:
Code example:
$a = 'col1';
$$a = 'somevalue';
echo $col1;
will output 'somevalue'.
http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.variables.variable.php

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