Table columns

PHPGuru2

Is there a way to find out the column name with MySQL pre-defined variable or build-in functions to sort the record using "ORDER BY" with the column name that is found?

For example,

Table name: a
columns: id, column_a, column_b

SELECT * FROM a ORDER BY column_a

We know that column_a so we can include that to the query statement. But what happens if you don't know how many columns are there or the name of those columns, and still would like to sort the records with one of the columns using "ORDER BY"?

Thanks in advance!

Weedpacket

I understand that PHP offers a [man]MySQL[/man] function for that.

PHPGuru2

It seems like there is no way to just find out about the column without running extra queries but to use "SHOW COLUMNS" query first and fetch rows. Well, that sucks.

Weedpacket

Originally posted by PHPGuru2
It seems like there is no way to just find out about the column without running extra queries but to use "SHOW COLUMNS" query first and fetch rows. Well, that sucks.

Why wouldn't you know what your table columns are called?

(I still think PHP has a function for this. But I could be wrong. I only read the manual.)

PHPGuru2

There are couple of mySQL functions in PHP to find out the column fields, but it requires extra queries to be called. I just wanted to avoid that and in order to do so, you have to work with SQL query that you are going to run (just like everyone tries to combine 2 or 3 different select queries into 1 select query).

I'm making a pagenation class to be used for any of the tables in MySQL database. I just wanted to feed a table name and the rest would be taken care of by the class, but in order to do so, the class has to find out all the information it needs such as column names and how many of them are there in the table.

Class should be designed so that it can be used for any different projects. That's the whole reason for using OOP technique - re-usability. I'm simply trying to follow that rule 🙂