PHP | mysqli_fetch_field_direct() Function

Hello folks! welcome back to a new edition of our tutorial on PHP. In this tutorial guide, we are going to be studying about the PHP mysqli_fetch_field_direct() Function.

The built-in PHP mysqli_fetch_field_direct() function accepts a result object and an integer representing a field number as parameters and returns the definition information of the specified column/field in the form of an object.

Syntax

Following below is the syntax to use this function -

mysqli_fetch_field_direct($result,  $field);

READ: PHP | mysqli_fetch_assoc() Function

Parameter Details

Sr.No	Parameter & Description
1	result(Mandatory) This is an identifier representing a result object.
2	field(Mandatory) An integer value representing the field for which you need the metadata/definition-information.

Return Value

This built-in PHP function returns an object which contains the definition information of the specified field in the given result. This PHP function returns false if the specified field is not available.

The object returned contains the following properties $minus;

• name

• orgname

• table

• orgtable

• length

• max_length

• flags

• charsetnr

• decimals

• type

PHP Version

This PHP function was first introduced in PHP version 5 and works in all the later versions.

Example1

The following below is an example which demonstrates the usage of the built-in PHP mysqli_fetch_field_direct() function (in a procedural style) -

<?php
   $con = mysqli_connect("localhost", "root", "password", "mydb");

   mysqli_query($con, "CREATE TABLE myplayers(ID INT, First_Name VARCHAR(255), Last_Name VARCHAR(255), Place_Of_Birth VARCHAR(255), Country VARCHAR(255))");
   print("Table Created.....\n");
   mysqli_query($con, "INSERT INTO myplayers values(1, 'Kennedy', 'Nkpara', 'PortHarcourt', 'Nigeria')");
   mysqli_query($con, "INSERT INTO myplayers values(2, 'Jonathan', 'Trott', 'CapeTown', 'SouthAfrica')");
   mysqli_query($con, "INSERT INTO myplayers values(3, 'Queen', 'Douglas', 'Texas', 'UnitedStates')");
   print("Record Inserted.....\n");

   //Retrieving the contents of the table
   $res = mysqli_query($con, "SELECT * FROM myplayers");

   //Fetching the metadata of 3rd field
   $info = mysqli_fetch_field_direct($res, 2);

   print("Name: ".$info->name."\n");
   print("Table: ".$info->table."\n");
   print("Max Length: ".$info->max_length."\n");
   print("Flags: ".$info->flags."\n");
   print("Type: ".$info->type."\n");
   print("Definition: ".$info->def."\n");
   print("Character Set: ".$info->charsetnr."\n");

   //Closing the statement
   mysqli_free_result($res);

   //Closing the connection
   mysqli_close($con);
?>

Output

When the above code is executed, it will produce the following result -

Table Created.....
Record Inserted.....
Name: Last_Name
Table: myplayers
Max Length: 10
Flags: 0
Type: 253

Example2

In an object oriented style the syntax of this function is $result->fetch_field_direct(); The following is the example of this function in an object oriented style -

<?php
   //Creating a connection
   $con = new mysqli("localhost", "root", "password", "mydb");

   $con -> query("CREATE TABLE Test(Name VARCHAR(255), AGE INT)");
   $con -> query("insert into Test values('Kennedy', 27),('Paul', 30),('Justice', 28)");
   print("Table Created.....\n");

   $stmt = $con -> prepare( "SELECT * FROM Test WHERE Name in(?, ?)");
   $stmt -> bind_param("ss", $name1, $name2);
   $name1 = 'Kennedy';
   $name2 = 'Paul';

   //Executing the statement
   $stmt->execute();

   //Retrieving the result
   $result = $stmt->get_result();

   //Fetching the metadata of 2nd field
   $info = $result->fetch_field_direct(1);

   print("Name: ".$info->name."\n");
   print("Table: ".$info->table."\n");
   print("Max Length: ".$info->max_length."\n");
   print("Flags: ".$info->flags."\n");
   print("Type: ".$info->type."\n");
   print("Definition: ".$info->def."\n");
   print("Character Set: ".$info->charsetnr."\n");

   //Closing the statement
   $stmt->close();

   //Closing the connection
   $con->close();
?>

Output

When the above code is executed, it will produce the following result -

Table Created.....
Name: AGE
Table: Test
Max Length: 0
Flags: 32768
Type: 3
Definition:
Character Set: 63

READ: PHP | mysqli_fetch_field() Function

Alright guys! This is where we are going to be rounding up for this tutorial post. In our next tutorial, we are going to be discussing about the mysqli_fetch_fields() Function in PHP.

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