[edit] Last updated: Fri, 29 Jun 2012

mysql_field_type

(PHP 4, PHP 5)

mysql_field_type — Get the type of the specified field in a result

Description

string mysql_field_type ( resource $result , int $field_offset )

mysql_field_type() is similar to the mysql_field_name() function. The arguments are identical, but the field type is returned instead.

Parameters

result: The result resource that is being evaluated. This result comes from a call to mysql_query().
field_offset: The numerical field offset. The field_offset starts at 0. If field_offset does not exist, an error of level E_WARNING is also issued.

Return Values

The returned field type will be one of "int", "real", "string", "blob", and others as detailed in the » MySQL documentation.

Examples

Example #1 mysql_field_type() example


<?php
mysql_connect("localhost", "mysql_username", "mysql_password");
mysql_select_db("mysql");
$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM func");
$fields = mysql_num_fields($result);
$rows   = mysql_num_rows($result);
$table  = mysql_field_table($result, 0);
echo "Your '" . $table . "' table has " . $fields . " fields and " . $rows . " record(s)\n";
echo "The table has the following fields:\n";
for ($i=0; $i < $fields; $i++) {
    $type  = mysql_field_type($result, $i);
    $name  = mysql_field_name($result, $i);
    $len   = mysql_field_len($result, $i);
    $flags = mysql_field_flags($result, $i);
    echo $type . " " . $name . " " . $len . " " . $flags . "\n";
}
mysql_free_result($result);
mysql_close();
?>

The above example will output something similar to:

Your 'func' table has 4 fields and 1 record(s)
The table has the following fields:
string name 64 not_null primary_key binary
int ret 1 not_null
string dl 128 not_null
string type 9 not_null enum

Notes

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


Additional to the note below:

If you're using the "SHOW FIELDS" syntax, be sure that you're adding the table name instead of the db name in the "FROM" parameter:



<?php

$result = mysql_query("SHOW FIELDS FROM table");

?>



Also possible:



<?php

$result = mysql_query("SHOW FIELDS FROM table.db");

?>



or this:



<?php

$result = mysql_query("DESCRIBE table");

?>

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/describe.html

fusionstream at gmail dot com 17-Sep-2006 03:19


krang at krang dot org dot uk

Condensed version of what KRANG said.



To get info on the MYSQL field type, use this code



<?

$result = mysql_query("SHOW FIELDS FROM db_name");



$i = 1;

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) { //go through one field at a time

  echo "Field $i: ";

  print_r($row) //display all information about A field which can be accessed thru the "$row" array.

  $i++;

}

?>



Will display something like:

Field 1: Array ( [Field] => SN [Type] => mediumint(8) unsigned [Null] => [Key] => PRI [Default] => [Extra] => auto_increment ) , SN, mediumint(8) unsigned

Field 2: Array ( [Field] => ENTITY_ID [Type] => varchar(20) [Null] => [Key] => [Default] => [Extra] => ) , ENTITY_ID, varchar(20)

18-Feb-2006 04:52


This function is broken in 4.4.1 (works fine in 4.3.X).

http://bugs.php.net/35536

harald at weinreichs dot de 06-Jun-2005 04:02


The note blow seems incomplete/incorrect. For php 4.3 and mysql 4.x the returned values are:



CHAR, VARCHAR, TINYTEXT, TEXT, MEDIUMTEXT, LONGTEXT, ENUM, SET: string

TINYINT, SMALLINT, MEDIUMINT, INT, INTEGER, BIGINT: int

FLOAT, DOUBLE, DECIMAL, NUMERIC: real

TIMESTAMP: timestamp

YEAR: year

DATE: date

TIME: time

DATETIME: datetime

TINYBLOB, MEDIUMBLOB, LONGBLOB, BLOB: blob



if mysql-field-type seems to return the wrong values, you may encounter an compatibility problem of mysql, php and the libraries you use. Try reinstalling php and mysql.

mariob at menta dot net 07-Nov-2003 05:21


For version 4.3.4, types returned are:



STRING, VAR_STRING: string

TINY, SHORT, LONG, LONGLONG, INT24: int

FLOAT, DOUBLE, DECIMAL: real

TIMESTAMP: timestamp

YEAR: year

DATE: date

TIME: time

DATETIME: datetime

TINY_BLOB, MEDIUM_BLOB, LONG_BLOB, BLOB: blob

NULL: null

Any other: unknown

swalif_mesa at hotmail dot com 09-Jul-2003 04:38


Hmm for the previous comment, note that SHOW FIELDS is an alias of SHOW COLUMNS. Very useful if you need to search the mysql-documentation. Here is the link anyway...

http://www.mysql.com/doc/en/SHOW_DATABASE_INFO.html

krang at krang dot org dot uk 09-Mar-2002 11:13


The field type returns what PHP classifies the data found in the field, not how it is stored in the database; use the following example to retrieve the MySQL information about the field....



$USERNAME = '';

$PASSWORD = '';



$DATABASE = '';

$TABLE_NAME = '';



mysql_connect('localhost', $USERNAME, $PASSWORD)

    or die ("Could not connect");



$result = mysql_query("SHOW FIELDS FROM $DATABASE.$TABLE_NAME");



$i = 0;



while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {

  echo $row['Field'] . ' ' . $row['Type'];

}

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