Quick MySQL/PHP question

Skud

Is there anyway of printing the column headers from a MySQL table in PHP? Looked for it everywhere. Want it to simplify an UPDATE. Or if anyone has any other examples of an easier way of UPDATING wouldn't mind hearing them. Cheers.

Zaph0d

ALTER TABLE t1 CHANGE a b INTEGER;
where t1 is the table name, a is the old column name, b is the new column name, INTEGER is the existing type of the column.

UPDATE is for changing data (DML)
ALTER TABLE is DDL

Seth Brundle

rename the column?
ALTER TABLE employees CHANGE oldcolname newcolname OLDDEFINITION

where oldcolname becomes newcolname. The employees table would no longer have a column named "oldcolname". You must also retain and include the old definition. e.g. VARCHAR(255)

Seth Brundle

darn! not quick enough!

Skud

cheers lads but I wasn't specific enough. I want the column name to assist an update of a row like

TABLE branch

---

Branch_Num | Street | City | Pcode | Tel_No

---

Branch 5 | Dam st | Dub | 00990 | 01xxxx

so I want to have
$query = "UPDATE $tableoption SET $key1 = $key3 WHERE $key1 = $key2; ";


Where $tableoption is selected from a dropdown. (in this case it'd be branch)
$key1 is a column header selected from a dropdown. (Branch_Num, Street, City, Pcode, Tel_No)
$key3 is a new value.
$key2 is the old value to be overwritten.

So it'd be like the show tables command....

Zaph0d

Skud wrote:

cheers lads but I wasn't specific enough. I want the column name to assist an update of a row like

TABLE branch

---

Branch_Num | Street | City | Pcode | Tel_No

---

Branch 5 | Dam st | Dub | 00990 | 01xxxx

so I want to have
$query = "UPDATE $tableoption SET $key1 = $key3 WHERE $key1 = $key2; ";


Where $tableoption is selected from a dropdown. (in this case it'd be branch)
$key1 is a column header selected from a dropdown. (Branch_Num, Street, City, Pcode, Tel_No)
$key3 is a new value.
$key2 is the old value to be overwritten.

So it'd be like the show tables command....

You were specific. you asked a specifically different question and then edited your question to something completely different. Unless I am nuts which I am.

OK here's the answer to question 2:
use INFORMATION_SCHEMA views to get table names and other metadata from your database. This method works in the latest versions of mysql, sql server and oracle.

To populate your dropdown of tables:

SELECT TABLE_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES;

To find the columns for a specific table:

SELECT COLUMN_NAME FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_NAME = '<your chosen table>';