How can I check if mysql table column even exists? - php

Question

How can I check if mysql table field even exists ?
The column name is 'price' and I need to see if it exists.
Haven't understood really how the 'EXISTS' works...
Any examples or ideas ?
Thanks

Answer 1

In PHP:
$fields = mysql_list_fields('database_name', 'table_name');
$columns = mysql_num_fields($fields);
for ($i = 0; $i < $columns; $i++) {$field_array[] = mysql_field_name($fields, $i);}
if (!in_array('price', $field_array))
{
$result = mysql_query('ALTER TABLE table_name ADD price VARCHAR(10)');
}
This should also help you:
IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_NAME = ‘TEST’ AND COLUMN_NAME = ‘TEST_DATE’)
BEGIN
ALTER TABLE TEST ADD TEST_DATE DATETIME
END
Or you can do:
Show columns from table like 'string';
There has been a similar question posed on SO here before.

Answer 2

Try:
IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_NAME = 'TEST' AND COLUMN_NAME = 'Price')
BEGIN
-- do something, e.g.
-- ALTER TABLE TEST ADD PRICE DECIMAL
END

Answer 3

Another way of doing it in PHP:
$chkcol = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM `table_name` LIMIT 1");
$mycol = mysql_fetch_array($chkcol);
if(isset($mycol['price']))
echo "Column price exists! Do something...";

Answer 4

Well, one way is to do:
select price from your_table limit 1
If you get an error:
#1054 - Unknown column 'price' in 'field list'
then it does not exists.

Answer 5

I found this very useful. It will list all the tables that has that column name.
SELECT table_name,
column_name
FROM information_schema.columns
WHERE column_name LIKE '%the_column_name%'

Answer 6

well here is a function to check out if a particular column exists or not.
public function detect_column($my_db, $table, $column)
{
$db = mysql_select_db($my_db); //select the database
$sql = "SHOW COLUMNS FROM $table LIKE '$column'"; //query
$result = mysql_query($sql); //querying
if(mysql_num_rows($result) == 0) //checks the absence of column
echo "column $column doesn't exist !";
// write your code here!
else
echo "column $column exists!";
}
well if you are designing a frame work, then this function may come to your aid. This function checks for the presence of column when $flag is set to '1' and absence of column when $flag is set to '0'.
public function detect_column($my_db, $table, $column, $flag)
{
$this->select_db($my_db); //select the database
$sql = "SHOW COLUMNS FROM $table LIKE '$column'";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
if(mysql_num_rows($result) == $flag)
return true;
else
return false;
}

Answer 7

You could get a description of all the column in your table.
desc your_table;

Answer 8

I just done something like this using this function for Wordpress, this for update tables that having new chnages on it
public function alterTable() {
$table_name = $this->prefix . $this->tables['name'];
$select = "select * from `{$table_name}` where 0=0 limit 1;";
$query = $this->db->get_results($select, ARRAY_A);
if (isset($query[0]) && !key_exists('adv', $query[0])) {
$sql = "ALTER TABLE `{$table_name}` ADD `me` INT NULL DEFAULT NULL ;";
$this->db->query($sql);
}
}