Efficient way of determining MySQL key?

[Anon]

Does anyone know if there's a way of using a SELECT statement to get the same info as DESCRIBE or SHOW FIELDS, so as to limit the result set to only show the primary key field(s)?

I'm building a "generic" editing form, so I need to get a kwy value to use in my UPDATE statement, but the only way I can figure how to do it is to use DESCRIBE and then iterate through the resulting array, testing for "PRI", which seems... uh... stupid.

TIA.
--Dan

[Anon]

Make primary keys auto increment, then just leave the entry for them blank and they'll update themselves. If you need to get the primary key value for that record, you can go back later (after the data has been entered and the primary key auto-incremented) and pull it using a select * from tbl_whatever where (something you already know) = (value you just entered).

If this advice has nothing whatsoever to do with what you're asking, then I apologize, but I'm not 100% certain I understand the question. Perhaps if we had an example to look at?

[[deleted]]

I think the closest you can get is to use a 'describe' or a 'show fields' and iterate through it.

Note: there's only so much you can do 'generically', at some point you'll have to make it application-specific. Selecting a primary-keu field sounds like the idea opportunity to make that application specific. You definately do not want to run an extra "where's my primary-key" query every time you want to update a record 🙂