SQL select statement parser

renz

Is there a -simple- mean to retrieve fields names from a select statement, handling aliases and SQL functions:
for instance, from:
"field1, field2 as alias, table.field3, concat(field4,' ',field5) as alias2"
I'd like to retrieve the array:
field1
alias
field3
alias2

I may do it by sending my full query to MySQL and get fields names, but I'd like to know if there is a way to do it without the database server?

Thanks

nemonoman

You'll have to access the server sometime to get this information, unless you've hardwired it into your PHP code.

Selecting field names from MySQL should be a very fast process, so why not use the server?

renz

The problem comes from that the queries I want to parse are relatively complex (joins and left joins) with parameters filled dynamically by a script, so when I parse the query I don't know correct values for the parameters:
If the query returns an empty result I can't work on fields' names.

Maybe I should try to add something like a count(*) in the query so I'm sure at least one record is returned .

nemonoman

Could give us an example. I am confused by your explanations, but I'm sure an example would make things clearer.

renz

What I want to do:
generate rtf documents fusionning data from MySQL and and a rtf template where I put stuffs like "<#NAME#>".
I want to do it all dynamically: I don't want to write a script specific to each template with an association between tag names and SQL fields in my queries.

So:
1- I strore my templates: filename, ...
2- I store my queries in a MySQL table (fields: select, from, where, groupby, orderby and limit); these queries can use some PHP variables ($DATE,$ITEM_ID,...) which enable to retrieve exactly the data I want.
3- A template is linked to none or several queries
4- A template is linked to none or several tags-SQLfield pairs (here is what is at stake, I'll come back later on this)

When I want to generate the doc, here how it goes:
1- Load the appropriate template and all the queries
2- evaluate the queries as:

eval("\$the_query=\"SELECT $select FROM $from WHERE $where ...\";");

3- then pass the queries to retrieve data, say in $data (array)
4- retrieve the tag-SQLfield pairs linked to the template, say in $tag (matrix)
5- while there is row in $tag, replace the tag $tag["name"] by $data[$tag["field"]]

...and that's it.
Now let's come back to our point:
I'd like to make a user interface page so he can make the association tag-SQLfield.

For a given template: I parse it, retrieve tags, fill my table (fields: tag, SQLfield(NULL at start) ). then I have to retrive SQLfields from the queries linked to my template to make a dropping lists and propose them for choice in front of each tag name.

The problem is that when doing this at this time, I have no idea of what correct parameters ($DATE, $ITEM_ID,...) could be, since it depends on the template I'm treating.
I'd like to be able to retrive SQLfields, NOT without requesting MySQL, BUT without any data in my database.

I don't know yet if MySQL has included stored queries (with parameters). It may be solution if so, wouldn't it?

Thank you again.

P.S.:If you want I can send you a view of the user interface stuff, so can make you a more visual idea