mysql_field_len Problem

[rbutlerjr]

I've run into a strange problem with mysql_field_len returning -1 on
any / all calls to it. This is on an Unbuntu Dapper system, with PHP
4.4.2, MySQL 4.1.15, and the PHP/MySQL Client API is 5.0.18. This is
using the default dpkg installs of php4-mysql and mysql-server-4.1
This same call and associated code works properly on existing Windows
and Linux systems (both with older versions of PHP & MySQL). The
primary difference that I can see is those systems are using API
3.23.49.
I'm barely a linux novice (much less intermediate level), so I'm not
sure how to go about changing the API version. Any help would be
appreciated.

[Michael Austin]

rb*******@gmail .com wrote:

I've run into a strange problem with mysql_field_len returning -1 on
any / all calls to it. This is on an Unbuntu Dapper system, with PHP
4.4.2, MySQL 4.1.15, and the PHP/MySQL Client API is 5.0.18. This is
using the default dpkg installs of php4-mysql and mysql-server-4.1
This same call and associated code works properly on existing Windows
and Linux systems (both with older versions of PHP & MySQL). The
primary difference that I can see is those systems are using API
3.23.49.
I'm barely a linux novice (much less intermediate level), so I'm not
sure how to go about changing the API version. Any help would be
appreciated.

can we see the code line where you are trying to use this? and are you using it
properly?

From the docs:
Example 1. A mysql_fetch_len () example
<?php
$result = mysql_query("SE LECT id,email FROM people WHERE id = '42'");
if (!$result) {
echo 'Could not run query: ' . mysql_error();
exit;
}

// Will get the length of the value in email so for example
// us**@example.co m would give us a length of 16
$length = mysql_fetch_len ($result, 'email');
echo $length;
?>
--
Michael Austin.
DBA Consultant
Donations welcomed. Http://www.firstdbasource.com/donations.html
:)

[rbutlerjr]

Sure:

function returnColumnSiz e ($column) {
$db_connection = connect ();
$query = "SELECT $column FROM $this->tablename LIMIT 1";
$result = mysql_query ($query, $db_connection) ;
if (!$result) {
die ("Invalid Database Query ($query): " . mysql_error() );
} else {
return (mysql_field_le n ($result, 0));
}
// We had data, but couldn't find the column_name specified.
return FALSE;
}

This continues to work perfectly fine on my other three systems (2
windows, 1 ISP linux), but fails on this Ubuntu.

[rbutlerjr]

OK, I've played around with it a bit more, and it appears that
mysql_field_len returns -1 when looking at a longtext column, not other
types... Blob, text, ints, mediumtext, etc work fine.
Still not sure why this is affecting this particular machine.