Define a symbol?

Anon

I'm trying to do something kindof strange. Tell me if I can get away with this. I want to define a symbol that the php interpreter replace with a different value based on a variable's value. Kindof like this:

<?
#define system mysql //c syntax here

system_query($sql, $id);

In this way, I can use the same code to run on mysql and mssql servers because all I need to do to port it over is to change the command from "mysql" to "mssql".

Is this possible?

Anon

not that i know of

plus you might note that the <database>_query() functions sometimes take their arguments in a different order than each other for some reason.

what one could do is make abstraction functions or classes. there are some available.

ie:

function abstract_dbclose($dlink) {
// just change this function and
// all other abstract functions
//to change databases

mysql_close($dlink)
}

function abstract_dbopen($host, $username, $pass, $db) {
$pointer = mysql_connect($host, $username, $pass);
mysql_select_db($db, $pointer);
return $pointer;
}

make one for query, etc etc etc

-harlan

Anon

That's an EXCELLENT idea!!

Anon

Actually, you can call a function defined by a variable name:

<?
$bar = "phpinfo";
$bar();
?>

... but Harlan is right; the various sql libraries are not 1:1 interchangeable and you are best off using an abstraction layer.

Anon

there are prepackaged functions to do this if you search around for them