Question

I have a question to which I have been unable to find the answer.

I can create an extra column in a PHP recordset by using an existing column and duplicating it:

SELECT 
    id_tst, 
    name_tst, 
    age_tst, 
    price_tst, 
    price_tst AS newprice_tst 
FROM test_tst

From what I can work out the AS will only duplicate an existing colulmn or rename a column rs.

I want to add two extra columns to a table, but with no values.

I know a lot of people will say whats the point in that; it’s pointless to have 2 columns with no data.

The reason is I am doing a price updating module for a CMS system, where the user can download a .csv file containing prices, modify the prices in a spreadsheet then re-upload the CSV to update he prices.
the two extra columns would be to hold the new prices keeping the old so a roll back from the CSV file could be performed if nessecary.

I could just get the client to add the two new colulmns into the spreadsheet, but would prefer to have the exported CSV with the columns already in place.

Is it possible to create blank columns when creaing an rs?

Answer 1

You can create empty “dummy” columns by aliasing a blank string:

SELECT '' AS emptyColumn, column1, column2 FROM table

This will produce another column in your query with all blank values.