mysql_num_fields

(PHP 4, PHP 5)

mysql_num_fields — Get number of fields in result

Description

int mysql_num_fields ( resource $result )

Retrieves the number of fields from a query.

Parameters

result: The result resource that is being evaluated. This result comes from a call to mysql_query().

Return Values

Returns the number of fields in the result set resource on success or FALSE on failure.

Examples

Example #1 A mysql_num_fields() example


<?php
$result = mysql_query("SELECT id,email FROM people WHERE id = '42'");
if (!$result) {
    echo 'Could not run query: ' . mysql_error();
    exit;
}

/* returns 2 because id,email === two fields */
echo mysql_num_fields($result);
?>

Notes

Note:
For backward compatibility, the following deprecated alias may be used: mysql_numfields()


Note that, if you want to get the amount of columns of a table and you're using the "SHOW COLUMNS FROM $table" query, you will have to use mysql_num_rows() instead of mysql_num_fields() on the result. This becomes logical when thinking about it, because the SHOW COLUMNS query returns a result with six columns (Field, Type, Null, Key, Default and Extra) and with a single row for every column found. If you'd count the number of fields, you'd always get 6. If you count the number of rows, you'll get the amount of columns found.

tharkey at tharkey dot net 19-Jun-2003 06:26


You can use it without a requete, just to list the fields :



$liste_champs = mysql_list_fields ( $Base, $Table, $connexion);



for ($i=0; $i < mysql_num_fields ($l_champs); $i++) {

                        echo ( mysql_field_name ($l_champs, $i) );

                        echo (' / ');

                        }

apass AT passmoore DOT com 01-Oct-2002 10:52


Adding to the last comment: you can dynamically loop through any number of  columns AND rows like so-



$query="your SQL";

$result=mysql_query($query) or die("Query ($query) sucks!");

$fields=mysql_num_fields($result);



echo "<table>\n<tr>";

for ($i=0; $i < mysql_num_fields($result); $i++) //Table Header

{ print "<th>".mysql_field_name($result, $i)."</th>"; }

echo "</tr>\n";

while ($row = mysql_fetch_row($result)) { //Table body

echo "<tr>";

    for ($f=0; $f < $fields; $f++) {

    echo "<td>$row[$f]</td>"; }

echo "</tr>\n";}

echo "</table><p>";



This has been tested.

matt at iwdt dot net 24-Sep-2001 01:09


here's one way to print out a row of <th> tags from a table


NOTE: i didn't test this





$result = mysql_query("select * from table");





for ($i = 0; $i < mysql_num_fields($result); $i++) {


    print "<th>".mysql_field_name($result, $i)."</th>\n";


}





post a comment if there's an error

bwark at stanford dot edu 24-Dec-2000 10:56


If you just want the number of fields in a table, you can do something like this:





<?php


$db_id = mysql_connet();


$result = mysql_query("DESCRIBE [tableName], $db_id);





$numFields = mysql_num_rows($result);


?>





Because "DESCRIBE" returns one row for each field in the table (at least in MySQL), this will work.

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