whats the best way to write a php mysql funtion?

Question

i want to retrieve information from my database quite a lot throughout my app, i was thinking it would be easier to write function, so i can access it anytime, what is the best way to write one! thanks :))

Answer 1

hope this helps, you have to pass variables to a function, then use that variable to retrieve something from your database! i.e.

function getUserInfo($username) {

                $query = "SELECT * FROM user WHERE username = '$username'";
                $result = mysql_query($query);
                if (!mysql_num_rows($result)) return false;
                $row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
                return $row;

            }

Answer 2

• mysql_query() - simple, function interface
• PDO - OOP, statement preparation, simple to learn and good to use
• ORM - Doctrine, Propel, hard for beginners but powerful at later stage.

Answer 3

Integrate a class into PDO then integrate your methods into the Database Object

Examples:

class Database extends PDO
{
    //Override __construct for PDO
    function __construct()
    {
        Here you assembly your PDO Constructor
        parent::__construct($dsn,$username,$password,$driver_options);
    }    
}

Based on that you can simple do:

$Database = new Database(); //Where as your Database class is now combined with PDO:

As a follow up you can do classes like so now:

class DB_Table_Users extends Database
{

    public function getByLocation($location)
    {
        $statement = $this->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE location = :location");
        $statement->bindValue(':location',$location);
        $statement->execute();
        return $statement;
    }

    public function getByDate($int_date)
    {
        $statement = $this->prepare("SELECT * FROM users WHERE reg_date > :int_date");
        $statement->bindValue(':int_date',$int_date);
        $statement->execute();
        return $statement;
    }

}

and use like so:

$Users = new DB_Table_Users;
$statement = $Users->getByLocation('uk');

foreach($row as $statement->fetchObject())
{
    //..
}

This has some more structure to the database relations and will keep your tables specific to a class.

Tip: you can also use __get and __set within your DB_Table_XXXX so that within your methods you can fetch as an object to your own table.