Sorry, I'm not jumping in becasue I have an answer, sorry Jeremy. I posted a few days ago a question and wonder if this thread , at least Shawn's response has any relevance to my question.
That is! ; Is there really any difference between using PHP to parse results back to the program or can a SQL statement do the same job. I'll re tell my tale of woe and how I overcame it using , if's , ands and ors. If need be. Stuart --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > You're mixing apples and oranges. > > PHP has the metadata available to it in the form of > a column name/value > pairs. You scan the results of a query in column > order and get the name of > the column (from the recordset, not from the data) > that has the data you > want, right? > > A native SQL query, as Paul said, is NOT aware of > the column names except > as you declare them for use. However, you _can_ > write a query that will > return a value based on a series of choices. It's > much like moving your > PHP column scanning loop into your SQL statement. In > this case you are > nesting a set of IF statements: > > set @targetValue = 'pid to find'; > > SELECT user_ID, IF([EMAIL PROTECTED], 'pid0', > if(pid1 = @targetValue, > 'pid1', if (.... repeat for remaining columns ...))) > FROM tablename > WHERE ... > > I didn't type the full statement but I think you can > see the pattern. This > was just my first idea. I am sure there are others > on the list that have > done something like this before and can offer their > solutions, too. > > Shawn Green > Database Administrator > Unimin Corporation - Spruce Pine > > > > "Jeremy McEntire" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote on > 09/07/2004 01:38:18 PM: > > > Clarification. > > > > I'm using modular arithmetic on a table of > recently viewed items. My > fields > > are: > > > > user_id, pid0, pid1, pid2, pid3, pid4, inc > > > > user_id is the user's unique identification. > > pid* is the product's unique identification. > > inc is a number, modulo 5, corresponding to > > the last pid column updated for this user. > > > > So, when the user visits a page, I want to verify > that they > > don't currently have this product in their > "recently viewed" > > list. > > > > To do so, I'd like to know if the product id is in > any of pid0, pid1, > pid2, > > pid3, or pid4. To accomplish this, I could use a > simple OR statement. > But, > > the information I really want is in which column > that product id > appears. > > Using PHP, I can simply grab the key from the > array returned by the > query. > > I was hoping MySQL offered this functionality; > evidently, it does not. > > > > Sincerely, > > Jeremy > > > -- MySQL General Mailing List For list archives: http://lists.mysql.com/mysql To unsubscribe: http://lists.mysql.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]
