What do you think of this way of doing DB in PHP?

[Christian Hvid]

Hi group.

I have just implemented an idea in PHP that I first saw in the OpenACS web
framework.

Basically the idea is to use dynamic evaluation (eval) to introduce the
result of a database call as variables in the calling code.

So the following code:

db_one_row ("SELECT name, number FROM people LIMIT 1");

Introduces the variables name and number (from the SQL statement). Meaning
that I afterwards can write:

echo $name;
echo $number;

Instead of writing something like:

$rows = mysql_query("SELECT name, number FROM people LIMIT 1");
$row = mysql_fetch_array($rows);
echo $row[0];
echo $row[1];

Likewise I can read multiple rows by having the next method of an iterator
introducing variables in caller's scope:

$i = db_multi_row("SELECT email, name FROM email_addresses");
while ($i.next()) echo "$name : $email";

What do you think of this approach to database access? Is it good or is it
bad?

My implementation is here:
http://vredungmand.dk/programming/ez...ess/index.html

-- Christian

[Alan Little]

Carved in mystic runes upon the very living rock, the last words of
Christian Hvid of comp.lang.php make plain:

Basically the idea is to use dynamic evaluation (eval) to introduce
the result of a database call as variables in the calling code.

So the following code:

db_one_row ("SELECT name, number FROM people LIMIT 1");

Introduces the variables name and number (from the SQL statement).
Meaning that I afterwards can write:

echo $name;
echo $number;

Instead of writing something like:

$rows = mysql_query("SELECT name, number FROM people LIMIT 1");
$row = mysql_fetch_array($rows);
echo $row[0];
echo $row[1];
Your eval() method is far more complicated than necessary. Just use
MySQL_Fetch_Assoc() and extract(). If you're going to embed it in a
function, you'll have to loop over it to globalise the variables, but
again, you can just use variable variables rather than constructing a
command to eval.
Likewise I can read multiple rows by having the next method of an
iterator introducing variables in caller's scope:

An interesting idea.

--
Alan Little
Phorm PHP Form Processor
http://www.phorm.com/

[R. Rajesh Jeba Anbiah]

"Christian Hvid" <[e-mail]> wrote in message news:<41***********************@nntp04.dk.telia.ne t>...

Hi group.

I have just implemented an idea in PHP that I first saw in the OpenACS web
framework.

Basically the idea is to use dynamic evaluation (eval) to introduce the
result of a database call as variables in the calling code.

So the following code:

db_one_row ("SELECT name, number FROM people LIMIT 1");

Introduces the variables name and number (from the SQL statement). Meaning
that I afterwards can write:

echo $name;
echo $number;

If you break the "de facto" standards, other 3rd programmer may not
be able to follow the code which will cost the maintenance. My
prefered way is mysql_fetch_assoc() and $row['name'], etc.

--
<?php echo 'Just another PHP saint'; ?>
Email: rrjanbiah-at-Y!com

[Jay Donnell]

What happens if there is already a variable called $name?

So the following code:

db_one_row ("SELECT name, number FROM people LIMIT 1");

Introduces the variables name and number (from the SQL statement). Meaning
that I afterwards can write:

echo $name;
echo $number;

Instead of writing something like:

$rows = mysql_query("SELECT name, number FROM people LIMIT 1");
$row = mysql_fetch_array($rows);
echo $row[0];
echo $row[1];