How to use MySQL functions in Propel

Question

I want to select records that are 1 month old or newer.

The query is: SELECT * FROM foobar WHERE created_at > DATE_SUB(curdate(), INTERVAL 1 MONTH)

Using Propel in Symfony, I do:

$c = new Criteria
$c->add(FoobarPeer::CREATED_AT, "DATE_SUB(curdate(), INTERVAL 1 MONTH)", Criteria::GREATER_THAN);

What Propel generates is: SELECT * FROM foobar WHERE created_at > 'DATE_SUB(curdate(), INTERVAL 1 MONTH)' - in other words, it puts the MySQL function in single quotes, which makes it a (meaningless) string and I get no records.

What I've done for now is:

$c->add(FoobarPeer::CREATED_AT, "created_at > DATE_SUB(curdate(), INTERVAL 1 MONTH)", Criteria::CUSTOM);

But I don't want to use custom workarounds unless I have to. Any hints besides using Criteria::CUSTOM?

Answer 1

I think there is no option more than using Criteria::CUSTOM or doing a custom SQL query like this:

$con = Propel::getConnection(DATABASE_NAME);

$sql = "SELECT foobar.* FROM foobar WHERE created_at > DATE_SUB(curdate(), INTERVAL 1 MONTH)";  
$stmt = $con->prepare($sql);
$stmt->execute();

$books = FoobarPeer::populateObjects($stmt);

That's because Propel tries to be DBMS-agnostic, to help migration by doing a simple configuration value change, so it doesn't have any DBMS specific functions built in.

Answer 2

just replace the mysql date code you are using there with a precalculated php variable that has that date in it already.

i.e.

$monthAgo = '2008-10-03';
$c = new Criteria
$c->add(FoobarPeer::CREATED_AT, $monthAgo, Criteria::GREATER_THAN);

obviously, you should dynamically calculate the date in php, rather than hard coding it, but you get the picture.