Question

i can return this like a string?
Similar Zend Framework ->__toString()

here i select my categories (just name) when is active…

$categories = Mage::getModel('catalog/category')
        ->getCollection()
        ->addAttributeToSelect('name')
        ->addFieldToFilter('is_active', 1);

i want see that like string sql query “SELECT * …”

Answer 1

(string)$categories->getSelect();

You have to use the getSelect() function and cast the results of that to a string. It will make use of the aforementioned __toString() function and return the results of the query.